The Hogwarts Protection Program
by 1hellyeahz1
Summary: After the unmitigated disaster of the Triwizard tournament, Hecate decides that Harry Potter needs a guard. So she travels to Camp Half blood and assigns 3 demigods to guard him while he is at school. Pairings are undecided.
1. Chapter 1

**Okie Dokie. So, ya'll should know that I have abandoned the Hetalia and Naruto fandom. For good. I'm not going to be going back there. Yeah, no. I'll be taking down my fanfics for those fandoms.**

**I have since joined the Percy Jackson fandom and I've been wanting to write a crossover fanfiction for PJO and Harry Potter. This is the result! :D**

**Furthermore, I understand that the Harry Potter books take place in the 1990's. However, I am not entirely sure what year the Percy Jackson books are set in and I don't know where I would find out. So, for the sake of plot advancement, they will be set in the same time frame. **

**If anyone would like to correct me on anything, please feel free to. **

Madam Rosmerta was a perfectly ordinary witch. She had a normal job tending to her pub, serving drinks to customers, chatting with the regulars, washing out the butterbeer mugs, controlling drunk and angry wizards. She wasn't particularly skilled or awful at magic, and she passed her O.W.L's with an A.

SHe didn't have a husband, but that was fine. Who needed men anyways? They were idiots, the whole lot of them. Cheating dirtbags who ran off with blonde twenty somethings the day you weren't young enough to have children anymore.

With that thought, Rosmerta slammed a mug down with a little more force than needed and startled a large hound that was outside the open window. After a few seconds it went back to reading a map that was on the ground in front of it.

Wait.

Rosmerta stared at the creature. How odd. She had never seen a dog read a map before. Was it even a dog? Maybe the heat was getting to her; that was why the window was open in the first place. And it was hot indeed. The hottest day of the year in fact. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes, and as she had suspected, the map was no longer there. Trick of the heat.

However, the dog was still there, now lying by the side of the building. Panting.

So, taking pity on the poor beast, the woman filled a bowl with water and ice, and placed outside next to the dog. It (she?) looked up at her with strange green eyes that looked wiser then they should have been, and she felt chills run up her spine.

"Here ya go," She said a bit more nervously then she would admit, "You shouldn't be out here with nothing to drink." The dog continued to stare. Rosmerta got the strangest feeling that she was nothing but a bug in the eyes of this strange dog. \

"Well," She continued, "I'll be inside the pub. Just scratch at the door if you need more water, or if you'd like to come in." The hound's dark fur shone sleek in the sun and she (Rosmerta conclded the dog was female) continued to stare at Rosmerta.

"Are you waiting for anyone?" Rosmerta asked on a whim, not thinking that the dog would actually answer. But it did. Amazingly, the dog nodded it's head calmly before lazily lapping at the ice water.

And with that, a bewildered Rosmerta shook her head, and went back into her pub.

…

The day went on, and Rosmerta continued to serve and entertain her customers. SHe refilled the water bowl she had for the dog outside twice, and not once did it move from it's position outside of the pub. While she was smart enough to figure out that the dog could understand what she was saying, Rosmerta could not figure out why the dog was staying there. It did not appear injured or scared. In fact, Rosmerta had seen the dog splay out it's large limbs and take a short nap.

Finally it came time to close up. She had kicked out her last patron and went back to the large black, green-eyed dog.

"Well, it's closing time, Pluto." She said. The dog glared at her.

"Don't like that name?" Rosmerta asked. The dog nodded.

"Well, isn't that what Mickey Mouse called his dog?" She said. The dog gave her a looked that said without question, 'I am not your dog.'

"All right, then." Rosmerta said, and turned away. She walked back inside and gathered up some scraps from the day, and left them outside for the dog. "Here is some food if you get hungry, Green-Eyes. You sure you don't want to come inside?"

Once again, the dog nodded.

And with that, Rosmerta left and went to bed in her nice, magically-cooled, husband-free bed. Absentmindedly, she wondered what it would be like to have children. But she figured it didn't matter. She was much too old, and even if she did adopt, a pub was no place to raise a child.

But maybe it would be nice one day, when she was old and retired.

Merlin help her.

…

The dog outside of Madam Rosmerta's pub, The Three Broomsticks, didn't leave. It stayed, occasionally reaching to the bowls for a scrap that Rosmerta had left her. SHe stayed and waited till the lights on the streets windows had nearly all gone out, and even longer.

Finally, when the moon seemed to be at it's highest, and tall figure in flamboyant silvery robes popped into the street. He had a long white beard, and piercing blue eyes.

This man was Albus Dumbledore.

He walked up to the dog and bowed low. "Ah… Lady Hecate. I do humbly apologize for my lateness." He straightened, and where there had been a dog, there was now a young woman sitting cross-legged on the side of the street with a stern look on her face.

She waved her hands. "It is done. Ensure it does not happen again." Dumbledore nodded gravely. "How did you know it was me?" She asked.

Dumbledore smiled, his eyes shining with barely concealed pride. "Your daughter takes after you."

Hecate smiled back, and stood up. "That she does, my old , you always did have a talent for seeing through a disguise, haven't you, Albus?"

"I suppose I have, my Lady."

Hecate sighed, and took Dumbledore's arm, "Walk with me, won't you?" She said, throwing her head back and gazing into his eyes.

"With pleasure, my Lady." Albus smiled warmly, and they began strolling throughout the dark streets of Hogsmeade.

It was quiet, the only sounds being crickets chirping in the night air, and the occasional owl, hooting in the distance.

"The ministry plan to interfere at Hogwarts," Dumbledore began. "I fear they will succeed."

Hecate nodded. "They will." She said with certainty. Dumbledore bowed his head. She gripped his sleeve with her free hand. "But I do have a plan, my love."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, and he smiled a wrinkly, "A love I cannot return, my dear Lady."

Hecate smiled back. "I have planned to send three demigods on a mission to your school, to help defend it."

"Three children against an army of Death Eaters?"

Hecate shook her head, "They've stood against greater threats than the likes of Tom Riddle." She said somberly. "However, I do not believe that he will attempt an attack on the school just yet."

"Then why send demigods?"

"Harry Potter must be protected. I know about the dementors, Albus." She gave him a pointed look.

"I have guards for him in the Order." Dumbledore protestered.

"And what about when he attends school? And do not tell me the school is safe, he has faced more danger inside the school then out of it!" Hecate exclaimed.

"I trust Severus-" Dumbledore started, but was cut off.

"Harry doesn't." She said. "He needs a guard he can get close to. connect with. Someone he'll trust if they follow him around and poke their nose into his business."

Dumbledore sighed, and smiled at Hecate. "I suppose, you are right. You always have been the source of my more brilliant ideas. Thank you for your advice on the dragon's blood, by the way."

Hecate sniffed, "Give yourself more credit, old man. You've kept him alive this far. I've watched him since he started at Hogwarts; keeping him alive is no easy feat." The young woman trailed her hand up Dumbledore's sleeve to his shoulder. "And the dragon's blood was all you. I was merely your guide and encouragement for your genius." She smiled wryly. "Oh, what a demigod we could have made, Albus. It isn't too late."

The old man shook his head sadly, "Alas, I cannot. You are a beautiful woman, but I cannot return the sentiment." He raised an eyebrow, "And I do believe that it is _much_ too late for me to be planning a family, my Lady."

Hecate laughed, "Oh, Albus. I'm a goddess of childbirth, as well as magic. You'd be surprised."

Dumbledore nodded, and the two of them let go of each others arms. Dumbledore kissed Hecate's hand. "I'm afraid, my Lady, that we must now part ways. I have other commitments I must attend to, that I am late for as well."

"Very well, Albus Dumbledore. Until we meet again." Hecate said, and Dumbledore pulled a long and old wand from his robes, flicked it, and disappeared with a pop.

Hecate touched the spot on her hand that Dumbledore had kissed and smiled fondly. Then she too disappeared into the night.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Summer in San Francisco was hot and noisy. Every day, tourists crowded the streets and clogged the already awful traffic. There were beach goers flocking to the beaches for sunbathing or swimming, and lovers walked through the markets, hand in hand, going through their morning shopping.

Jason Grace breathed in a sigh of contentment and munched on a brownie that he had bought in the New Rome market. Everything was hadn't been any Save The World missions in over a year. Ever since they had put Gaea back to sleep.

New Rome and Camp Half-Blood had (for the most part) settled their differences and created a peace treaty. Things weren't entirely peaceful between the two camps, and arguments broke out constantly, but Jason figured it was as good as it was going to get. SImply put, the Romans saw the Greeks as being too laid back and lazy, and the Greeks thought the Romans had a giant stick up their behinds.

But, they weren't trying to kill each other. So that was good.

For over a year, everything had been absolutely perfect.

Well, almost.

A few months after the Giant War had ended, Jason and Piper had hit a roadblock in their short affair. The roadblock was in a form of distance.

The aftermath of Octavian's short reign was stupendous. There were mountains of paperwork to be filled out, new restrictions that would help keep that sort of incident from ever happening again, add to that the new opening position of auger that had to be filled. Reyna had her hands filled, and Frank, having earned the title of Praetor on the field, had to be trained.

But Reyna simply didn't have the time.

So Jason, being an ex-praetor, needed to step in and train him. And Piper needed to stay across the country at Camp Half-Blood. She was the head of the Aphrodite cabin. She responsibilities at camp.

They tried to make it work. They really did. But there were 2,906 miles between them. Fights broke out, and awful things were said. After a few months, they called it quits.

Looking back, Jason knew they could have tried harder. They should have tried harder. And he hated the way they had just given up. But he also realized it was probably for the best. Piper deserved a boyfriend that she could hold hands with and kiss whenever she wanted.

Jason was currently in the city, taking a vacation from his duties now that he had decided he was pleased with Frank's training. He took another bite of his brownies, and he looked on at the bay. There were cruise ships coming in carrying tourists who were no doubt pink and sunburnt. Next to Jason there was a madrone tree with red peeling bark with green berrie that would turn red soon enough.

"Hey."

Jason jumped. Behind him, Nico di Angelo the son of Hades, was walking towards him. He was wearing his WWII aviators jacket, with a black skull shirt underneath it. Both articles of clothing fit him a lot better than the last time Jason had seen him.

"Hey yourself." Jason replied. There was an awkward silence. Neither of them had really talked much since the war. A few small conversations about the weather here and there. But that was it, really. Nico had been busy in the underworld, and the only one who had had any sort of regular contact with him was Hazel Levesque, Nico's half sister.

Nico fidgeted. "You're on vacation, right? Reyna told me this is where I would find you."

"Yeah. Hey, you're looking a lot better. Did you gain some weight?"

"Yeah. Hazel's been practically force feeding me." Nico cleared his throat. He looked a bit nervous. "So, I have come here with an offer for a quest, if you're interested."

"A quest?"

"Yeah. Long term. It'll take at least nine months to complete, and Hecate might ask for another year."

"What?!" Jason had never heard of a quest taking so long.

"We'll be guarding a school. Well, more specifically a person when he's at school."

"So, basically we'll be bodyguards?"

"Yup."

Jason shook his head. "Why?"

Nico groaned and sat down. "Well, it's actually a really long story, but I'll try to give you the shorthand version. Some evil wizard from Lady Hecate's pet world has come back, and he's trying to take over there. There is some kid who he is trying to kill specifically and Lady Hecate wants us to guard him. The kid isn't supposed to know."

"All right," Jason said. He bit his lip, "Why are you asking me?"

Nico sighed. "Honestly? You were my last resort. I wanted to find somebody at Camp Half-Blood, but as soon as I mentioned 'Evil Wizard is Trying to Take Over the World' they all scattered. I'm a son of Hades. I'm considered bad luck."

"Ouch. SHould I be offended?"

"No. I just didn't want to come here. If Hazel sees me she'll try to shove pastries down my throat."

Jason laughed. "Okay." He said. "Well, Frank is done with his training. And I've honestly been a bit bored. So why not?"

"Great. I'll give you the day to get packed and say your goodbyes. How about I meet you at Camp Jupiter's entrance this time, two days from now?"

"Sure." Jason said, and with that, Nico disappeared into the shadows.

Jason looked at the time. It was noon. 48 hours to pack up and say goodbye. Well, he should get going. He stood up and started walking towards the bus stop that would take him back to the Camp Jupiter entrance.

…

It took almost an hour for Jason to get back to New Rome. By then lunch had finished, and most of the demigods were training or digesting their meal.

He decided to tell Reyna first. She was his first friend when he first came here. They fought monsters and lead the camp together.

He wondered how she would take the news.

Over the year, the two of them had rebuilt their relationship that had been strained, and almost broken by the events that had taken place during the Giant War. Now, they were friends once again, and they both wanted to keep it that way. Jason hoped that they'd be able stay friends despite the distance that would be between them. Trivia's pet world was located in Europe, for the most part.

It took about ten more minutes after he got to Camp Jupiter, but eventually he made his way to the main building, which was where the praetors worked.

He walked up the steps and towards Reyna's work room and sucked in a deep breath.

..

"You'll be gone for a year?"

Jason winced. Reyna seemed upset, and her normally powerful and commanding voice was almost shattered.

"Yeah. Apparently Trivia wants bodyguards for a wizard that she's taken an interest in."

Reyna pursed her lips and leaned back in her chair. She painted an imposing figure with her praetor robes and her silver and gold dogs at her feet. "You aren't telling me everything. Spill it. Why does this wizard need bodyguards?"

Shoulders slumping, Jason started to tell Reyna about the dark wizard that had come back in Trivia's magic user world. He told her how the dark wizard wanted to take over and kill the wizard they were guarding.

"Why?" She asked, "Why this one boy? What exactly is so special about him?"

Jason shook his head. "I honestly have no idea. Nico didn't tell me. I doubt he even knows."

The praetor rubbed her head with her fingers, and Jason could tell that she had one of her migraines coming on by the way she had started to slouch in the large chair. "I honestly don't know what to say." She half whispered.

"Reyna…" Jason said.

"Don't 'Reyna' me!" Snapped Reyna. "Don't come in here and tell me you'll be leaving for a year without any sort of notice, and then act like it's all going to be fine!"

And suddenly it all clicked. He had done this before, albeit unwillingly. But it was the same to Reyna. She'd be losing a friend and comrade again. A sickening guilt crept into Jason's stomach.

Jason saw Reyna get up, and turn her back to him while she faced the window, looking out on Camp Jupiter where other demigods were training. Her back was straight and her armor, while it had numerous scratches from fights with monsters, was polished and spotless. Just like she liked it.

Jason came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry." He said. Reyna scoffed, but she didn't dislodge the hand. Jason went further and hugged her, stomach to back. "Truly, I am. I didn't realize what it would mean to you." He could feel Reyna start to bring in a shuddering breath,and that was when she removed herself from Jason's embrace.

"What are you standing here for, Roman? Go. You need to pack." She said, a clear dismissal in her voice.

Jason nodded, and began to leave the room, leaving Reyna alone by the window with only her dogs.

He wanted to run back and hug her, and he would have, had Frank not entered the room with his Eagle Medal proudly displayed on his chest. He was carrying some paperwork and requests that the two of them would need to approve.

"Hey Jason," He said, cheerfully. When he noticed the tension between him and Reyna he looked confused. "Did I interrupt something."

Reyna shook her head no, and Jason walked away.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Time. It was a very strange thing. One minute it's 1938 and Nico di Angelo and his family were leaving Italy for America. The next minute it was 2007 and his whole family was dead. He supposed Hazel had it worse. She had been twelve when she died and was raised from the dead. Nico was six when he was stuck in the Lotus Hotel.

Regardless, it was still strange to go outdoors and see a man taking his child out for a walk in it's stroller, or see women soldiers in military commercials. Those things, they just weren't done in the 1930's. His mother would have loved it here, Nico thought sadly. He knew from Bianca that she was a vigilant feminist. She had to have been, having been unmarried with two children.

The cabin that was built for Hades was fairly large for only housing one child, or even two when Hazel was over. There was a main room that had a chess set, a bookshelf, a desk, and a fireplace; along with a couple of fluffy armchairs. The walls were black italian plaster, and the floor was black marble squares lined with gold. Outside the cabin, the walls were a solid obsidian with several skeletons fused into the rock for the purpose of decoration and intimidation. Mostly to keep unwanted visitors away.

Heaven forbid anyone find out that the Hades cabin wasn't purely doom and gloom.

Nico shadowed travelled directly back into the Hades cabin and headed straight for his small but cozy room, collapsing down into his soft bed with black silk sheets. He grinned to himself, content with the knowledge that, besides Hazel, he was the only one in the camp who had silk sheets.

But Hades was the god of riches, as well as the dead. And he made sure his kids had the best.

Not that they didn't work for it, however. While Hazel was often busy with the SPQR in Camp Jupiter and very rarely had any free time, Nico spent most of his 'free time' running errands for his father. This included, but wasn't limited to, rounding up the odd ghost that refused to pass over and now haunted their old home, controlling oncoming shade traffic into the underworld, and trying to appease Queen Persephone so that he wasn't turned into a dandelion. Again.

Not to say that Nico was unhappy. He actually loved being in the underworld, and spent most of his time down there, so long as he wasn't anywhere near-

Nope. Nononononono. Don't think about that place. Ever. Never ever.

Nico shut his eyes and tried to clear his mind, while relaxing his body. If he started remembering _that place_ now, he would have another nightmare. They had become less common as his body had healed, and Hazel nursed him back to health, but they still happened more often than he liked.

Hazel wanted him to talk about it to someone. Anyone. But Nico just wanted to forget.

Deciding that sleep would be against his better judgement, he got up and decided to take a walk to the Hecate cabin. He needed to talk to Lou Ellen about the quest.

Lou Ellen. Daughter of Hecate, and third member of his team. Not that Nico was happy about it. The girl was strange, and tended to blow things up around him. But beggars can't be choosers, and not many of the other demigods were too willing to go on a year long quest, much less a year long quest with the son of Hades.

Soon enough he had arrived at the Hecate cabin. The outside was made of stone. Nico decided to avoid touching it; rumor had it that if even one stone was put out of place it would either A.) blow up, or B.) turn everyone around it into a tree. Regardless, Nico didn't need to worry about accidently upsetting one of the rocks. Lou Ellen, who was the sole inhabitant of the cabin peeked her head out of the window as he came up the path and rushed out, not before he heard things crashing around in the cabin.

"Hey," She said, smiling.

Nico nodded, standing in front of the girl awkwardly, and studied her. She was wearing a pink button up shirt with the top two buttons undone, and looked like she had experimented with a shimmery pink lip gloss.

Lou Ellen fidgeted under his scrutiny. "Do you need anything?" She asked.

Nico nodded. He did in fact need several things. Knowledge about the wizarding world for one. "Yes," He said, "Since your mother is Hecate, and she created the first wizard, I would assume that you have knowledge on the wizarding world?"

The girl beamed, her cat green eyes lighting up. "Yes! Come in,come in! Are you hungry? I have a few snacks that I managed to get approved by Chiron."

"Ugh," Nico groaned, "Not you as well…"

"Huh?" Lou Ellen asked. Confusion, and a little bit of hurt, in her eyes. "What do you mean?"

The boy coughed nervously, "Nothing," He brushed the statement off. "I was just… sick, for a while. I lost a lot of weight because of it. But I've been recovering."

"Oh." Lou Ellen said. "Is that why you were so skinny?"

"It was more than just skinny, but yeah." Nico didn't really like where the conversation was turning. This was why he needed to get out of his cabin. He needed to get his mind off it.

Nausea was rolling in his stomach.

"So, trying out makeup?" Nico said, trying to change the stomach.

Lou Ellen froze. "S-sorry?" She squeaked.

"The lipgloss."

"Umm… Yeah. A bit." She leaned back on a table that held numerous potion ingredients and a medium sized cauldron, fidgeting with her long dark hair. She cleared, straightened herself, and ducked into a smaller room. "Why not you stay here? I'll be right back with some books. There are some cookies right here, help yourself. There healthy- completely organic. Chiron approved and everything." She said this very quickly, and smiled a she left.

Nico decided to take a cookie. He wasn't that hungry, and he still felt nauseas, but he didn't want to be rude. Lou Ellen, while a bit strange and annoying, was his friend. he nibbled on it, and was surprised to find that it didn't taste like a rock like most of the organic food Chiron approved of. And the guy very rarely approved of anything not healthy. And most certainly not McDonalds.

The first time Nico ever tried to bring a Happy Meal into camp Chiron had ordered him outside of camp borders to finish it. The second time, Chiron had threatened to feed it to their monster stock in the woods. Since then Nico had always made sure to finish his happy meals before coming to camp. He would die before letting a monster eat his delicious Happy Meals.

When Lou Ellen came back she was carrying a stack of old, but well cared for, books. It was obvious from signs of wear, tear and repair work, that she cared a lot about them. She was also no longer wearing lip gloss. Nico resisted rolling his eyes. Girls. He didn't understand their makeup rituals. Why go to the effort of putting on lipgloss, just to take it off.

Maybe it was because he mentioned it. But then, didn't girls wear makeup to be noticed? Nico groaned inwardly. This was why he liked other men. He understood them.

"Here!" She announced cheerfully, "_Hogwarts, a History_, by Bathilda Bagshot. That has everything you'll need to know about Hogwarts. And here is a book detailing the history of wizarding Britain up till the 1850's." She handed him two of the at least five book stack. _Hogwarts, a History_ was newer than the latter and was bound in cloth and very hard cardboard, with a Coat of Arms. The other looked wood and leather bound, with several repairs made to it's spine.

"Those are both first editions, and I had to hunt them down myself." Lou Ellen's eyes were bright with pride. "I love wizarding Britain, and I'm going to be an auror; that's kind of like a wizarding police force. It's hard to get into, but I'm determined, and I'll crush any of my rivals." She grinned a grin that was fierce and just a little bit wicked.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I also love old books. Reading them is another story, but I love their smell, and some of the old spells in the _really_ old ones are quite fascinating. Not only that, but some of the really old dark magic is just _gruesome_. It's beautiful." She continued on about the old dark spells she had been studying in an old tome she had found in wizarding Cardiff a few months ago when visiting family. The way her eyes lit up when she described the old curses both intrigued and terrified Nico.

He didn't know too much about magic, but he might be good with dark magic considering his family lineage.

"And there is one that creates fire, _feindfyre_, and it destroys anything in it's path. And it will sometimes take the shape of certain animals as well. Somewhat like a patronus, if you will. Oh! You probably don't know what a patronus is. A patronus charm is cast to ward off dementors." Lou Ellen continued to babble as she handed Nico more books about recent history in wizarding Britain.

"Dementors?" Nico asked. the name sounded familiar, somehow.

Lou Ellen shuddered. "They're foul creatures. They feed off of death,decay, and despair. But they aren't under the control of the underworld. No one knows why. A patronus charm is configured of good energy and happy memories. It wards off dementors, as they can't stand happiness."

Nico nodded. "I see." And that was when he remembered. Dementors, his father sometimes ranted about them. He didn't often stick around during his rants. Hades liked to throw around black fire when he was angry. It wasn't like Hades would try to hurt Nico, quite the opposite, in fact. But Nico like to stay out of the way of the angry black fire if he could.

Lou Ellen was right in saying that dementors were out of the underworld's control. Hades was the supreme lord and ruler of all that was dead. Not all that was dark. While they were dark creatures, they contained no soul, that was why they fed on souls. They weren't dead, and they weren't alive. they just _existed. _Even the monsters of _that place_ were more alive than a dementor. A non-being. They were one of Nyx's creations on a day that she felt very vengeful indeed.

And Hades had been upset about it ever since.

The victims of the Dementor's Kiss, as it was called, no longer contained a soul. They could die, but when they passed, their soul was contained in the dementor until the dementor itself died, well, faded. Dementors weren't alive and therefore could not die. Only fade from existence. And that could take centuries.

So Hades had to wait centuries to take control of the soul of someone who was supposed to be in his kingdom. And that made him very angry indeed.

The last time Nico's father had ranted about the dementors was about two years ago when a criminal named 'Sires Blake' or something like that, Nico was young and not paying close attention to the details, had been sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss.

"Yeah. I remember now. My dad had been ranting about them a few years back. He does it whenever somebody is 'kissed' by them. The last time was a criminal named 'Sires Blake' I think. Something like that." Nico said. He then picked up and started trying to read _Hogwarts, a History._

Lou Ellen stared at him. "_Sires Blake_?" She whispered to herself, then screwed up her face. "Nico, do you mean Sirius Black?"

"Ohhh… Maybe that was it."

"Yeah. Sires isn't a name."

"Whatever. Hey! The pictures move! Would I be able to learn to do that?" Nico asked, excitement racing through him at the prospect of being able to make the monsters on his mythomagic cards move.

"Maybe," Lou Ellen said. "The spell isn't that difficult." She picked up one of her cookies and chewed on it. "Well, these should get you started, and there'll be more when we go shopping for school supplies." She pointed to three letters on the table. "Those showed up about five minutes before you got here."

"What are they?"

"Hogwarts acceptance letters. One of them is addressed to Jason Grace. I suppose he accepted the offer?"

Nico nodded, and picked them up. They were written with emerald green ink and they had the same Coat of Arms that was on _Hogwarts, a History_. "I'll give it to him when I pick him up in two days. It'll give us time to pack and say our goodbyes."

The girl nodded. "Alright. I'm planning on spending the day with Katie tomorrow. We're going to spend some time in New York, shopping and the like. I've got money saved up."

"Cool. I hope you have fun."

Lou Ellen, for whatever reason, blushed a bright cherry red. And then she stacked up the books, and shoved them into Nico's arms, then pushed him out of the cabin. "Alright, well, you have lots of reading to do! I've got things I need to do as well. Have fun!"

Nico stared blankly as Lou Ellen shut the door of the cabin. He shook his head.

Girls.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The next day brought even more sun and more humidity to New York. Lou Ellen Baineswas inwardly cursing the sun and preparing her sunglasses. She'd be meeting her best friend, Katie Gardner in just a few minutes and they'd be spending the day goofing off around New York, and maybe browsing a few shops. Just hanging out and having fun before she left for a year.

Suddenly there was a knock on the cabin door. "Hello?"

Ah. There was Katie. Responsible and early as usual. Lou Ellen rushed over, knocking over a carnivorous flower pot. Luckily she caught it before it fell to the floor and spilled dirt everywhere.

Lou Ellen opened the door and waved Katie inside. "Hey! I'm just getting a few things together. Want a cookie?" SHe handed Katie the plate of cookies from yesterday that Nico seemed to enjoy.

Nico… Lou Ellen's stomach got butterflies just thinking about him. He was just so… mysterious. And Lou Ellen loved mysterious things. It was of the reasons why the Dark Arts fascinated her. Not only that, but he was brave, powerful, and (while a bit on the skinny side) handsome. Yes. Lou Ellen wanted him. ANd Lou Ellen got what she wanted.

If only she could think straight when she was around him. Yesterday wasn't so bad. They were mainly talking business. But in order to lay any sort of dibs on him she would need to have some sort of friendly relationship.

But when she could barely keep her emotions in check in his presence it was impossible.

Katie seemed to notice her distress.

"So… the gossip vine told me Nico came over here yesterday?"

"Oh my gosh, yes!" Lou Ellen gasped. "And he knows about dementors!"

"Dementors?"

"Really foul creatures that Nyx created."

The daughter of Demeter nodded. "Okay. So Dark Arts stuff."

"Yeah." Lou Ellen smiled. "Oh Katie, this quest is a dream come true! Not only will I get to go to Hogwarts, which by the way is the best school in wizarding Britain if not the world, but I'll get to do it with Nico! He'll have to talk to his teammates, so we might become friends."

Katie smiled back. Her dark eyes twinkling with amusement. "That's great Lou Ellen." But then she frowned. "But I thought he was supposed to be your future husband?"

"He will be. Friends is just the first step in my plan."

"Ah. I see."

Lou Ellen started rubbing sunscreen into her skin. She handed the bottle to Katie who then replied that she had already applied it. "Anyways," Lou Ellen continued, "After he is my husband-"

"Your combined power will allow you to take over the world?" Katie asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What? No!" Lou Ellen said, aghast at the suggestion. "Gods, no! We'll have ten kids and a house in Cardiff near my family. I'll become an auror and work my way up the Ministry ranks till I'm the first female Minister of Magic." Lou Ellen continued rubbing sunscreen into her arms and then her shoulders. She could feel Katie's stare. "What is it?" She asked.

Katie shook her head. "Nothing," she said. "I think that's a great dream. But… ten kids? Are you certain?"

The cat eyed girl laughed nervously. "Haha. Well, my mom is a goddess of childbirth as well as magic. Lots of kids come with the territory. Besides, I love kids."

"And what about Nico? What if he doesn't want a romantic relationship with you?"

Lou Ellen stopped her sunscreen rubbing. She chewed on her bottom lip. While she had considered that possibility, it didn't stop her from wanting to pursue her career in magic. "It doesn't matter. I'll still be an auror, and eventually minister." She said more bitterly than she wanted to. Nico was his own person. He had a right to refuse her romantic pursuits if Lou Ellen ever asked him out.

Katie took the sunscreen from Lou Ellen. "Here, let me get your face." She offered. Lou Ellen closed her eyes and bent her knees so that the shorter girl could apply the sunscreen.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

…

New York City was a smorgasbord of culture wars, color, media, costumes, the arts, and pretty much anything you could think of. There were shops galore and all the clothes you dream of- if you could afford them that is.

Ah yes. one of the downsides to living in New York. Everything was twice as expensive as the neighboring city. Everything from clothing, housing, food- even medical care. It was all expensive as well, you know.

She and Katie had both agreed to window shop only. No purchasing anything that wasn't food. Hecate had given her, Nico, and now Jason a fund for the quest but that was for school supplies. Lou Ellen's clothes still fit her just fine, and she was happy with them.

Not to say that they didn't take lots of pictures. They had bought a few disposable cameras from the camp supply store in preparation for their day out and the two of them used up lots of film. From massive sculptures on the street, to buildings, and the phenomenon that was fried food on a stick.

She and Katie were in each picture. Lou Ellen sitting on a geometric sculpture in Central Park, Katie eating an ear of roasted corn from a vendor. Lou Ellen in front of a New Age shop, Katie trying on a silly felt hat they discovered in a tourist trap shop.

Currently they were in a high fashion clothing shop they had wandered into because Katie wanted to look at the flower bouquets she had seen from the window. They weren't for sale, but Katie wanted to find out where they came from. Lou Ellen's ADHD soon kicked in and she started wandering, looking a the strange clothing that she had no interest in buying.

The hats, however, did attract her attention. Most of them were summer hats. Wide brimmed hats piled high with flowers and bows.

"Oh! Those are pretty." Katie had rejoined her. and started examining the flower bedecked hats. There was one particularly hideous one that Lou Ellen found, however.

"Ew." Katie said when Lou Ellen held up the ivy green, lace fedora hat with peacock feathers to her head. "No. Put it back." Lou Ellen grinned and put it on, checking it out in the mirror.

"Oh gods, no, Lou Ellen. It's disgusting." The other girl whispered, trying not to attract attention. She had a grin that she was trying to keep off her face, though.

"Psh. It's beautiful. So fedora. Much douchebaggery. Very fashion." Katie was bent over now holding in her giggles. Lou Ellen took it off and put the hat back.

They were too consumed in their goofing around, that Lou Ellen almost didn't notice the other two patrons in the shop.

"Honestly, Mother. Why are we wandering around in these muggle shops?" A snotty looking blonde boy with a ferret-like face complained to his equally fair haired mother. Lou Ellen's head shot up. They were definitely wizards.

"It is important for you to experience different places, Draco." The mother said. The boy made a very unbelieving sound under his breath, but continued to follow. He looked around the shop and noticed Lou Ellen watching them and glared.

"What are you looking at?" He asked, his face screwed up at her like she was the mud on the bottom of his shoe.

"Nothing." She said quietly so the shopkeeper wouldn't hear. "Just most wizards around here shop in Aeronaut Alley." She said.

Katie heard her and uttered, "Lou Ellen…?"

Draco, as his mother called him, opened his eyes wide, and the disgusted look faded of course. Lou Ellen wanted to look down on him as well. She hated the prejudice in the old wizarding families, and these two definitely were from an old one.

"Aeronaut Alley? And where would that be?" He asked with curiosity.

"In the sky, of course. Ask any wizard around here. They'll tell you where to go./" Lou Ellen answered flatly. "Come on, Katie. Let's go. We shouldn't hang out around the trash."

"Excuse me? My father-"

"Can't touch me. You don't even know my name." Lou Ellen said over her back as she and Katie left.

…

"Lou, who was that?" Katie asked once they had gotten a good distance away from the shop.

"No idea." Lou Ellen said. She was walking fairly fast due to anger. Gods above, how she hated the prejudice and hypocrisy in the old wizarding families. It was what created the monster that she would be protecting Harry Potter from.

And it infuriated her. She hated seeing the beautiful world her mother created torn apart because a bunch of old families didn't like the new additions. Add on the fact that those old families held most of the power in the wizarding world, and it made things very difficult for muggleborns and their families.

Lou Ellen felt Katie place a hand on her shoulder. "Hey," Katie said softly, comforting as always. She was a rock and kept Lou Ellen's head on her shoulders when her ambitions got the best of her. "Look, whatever it is that's bothering you, it'll be alright."

"Thanks." Lou Ellen said. "But I doubt it will be. Not for a while."

"Things will get better." Katie replied. "Come on. I want to see Aeronaut Alley."

Lou Ellen grinned, her cat green eyes lighting up. "Oh, about that. It doesn't exist. I made it up. The British wizarding community likes to play with their words. Diagon Alley, one of the biggest wizarding shopping places is just the word diagonally split up. Same with the wizarding black market, Knockturn Alley. It's the word nocturnally split up. "

Katie laughed, "I bet he won't like that."

"Nope. Let's get out of here before he figures it out."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Two days had passed. Two long days filled with saying goodbye to his comrades.

He had two suitcases. One contained his armor and gladius and some clothes, though he had a feeling that since the school was in the UK he wouldn't be needing too many because of uniforms.

Shampoo, soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, a SPQR blanket, underwear, and a stuffed bald eagle Piper had won him at the fair back when they were still together went in the second suitcase. The blanket and eagle were unnecessary and bulky, but they were sentimental. He'd had the blanket for as long as he could remember, and the eagle was full of happy memories.

It was his and Piper's first official date. She had won him the bald eagle, and he had won her a gigantic pink teddy bear. The fair had been some carnival that had opened about a week after the Giant War, and Jason was still in New York. He and Piper had gone on a whim, both still mentally recovering from the war and wanting something fun to keep their minds occupied. They had had fun. The time of their lives, really. They played games, ate unhealthy food, went on rides, and let their guards down.

They had gotten lucky. Not one monster attacked.

Oxycontin, vasopressin, and other endorphins had flown between the two of them. They were high on love, and scarred from war. The two of them had made love proclamations they thought would last forever.

But love alone couldn't make those promises last. They needed to touch each other, to see each other and hold each other when they were lonely and scared.

It hurt, but it happened.

And that, more than anything, was what Jason regretted. He knew, he just knew, that he could have done something to prevent it.

But regardless of what if's, what happened did in fact happen. And he couldn't change it.

And now he was sitting on his suitcase at the entrance to Camp Jupiter, his coin sword tucked safely in his pocket, waiting for Nico; along with most of Camp Jupiter who had come to see him off.

Reyna and Frank stood next to him in their glistening bronze armor and purple robes. Jason was wearing the SPQR t-shirt and jeans like Nico told him too in a note he'd left last night. The note had outlined more specific details of the mission and what to wear and where to pack the armor.

"You guys don't need to see me off," Jason said.

The corner of Reyna's lip lifted just a little bit. "No, we don't."

"But it's entertaining." Frank added in.

Jason sighed, not exactly enjoying being the center of attention. However he was saved a couple minutes later when a swirling mass of shadows emerged from the ground, and out came Nico di Angelo and another girl Jason recognized as Lou Ellen. Both of them had two large suitcases.

Right on time, Jason noted.

There wasn't much ceremony. Nico walked up (he looked slightly confused at the large assembly) and checked Jason's baggage.

"I trust you," He said, "But I don't want to make a trip back here. So we need to make certain you have everything you'll need until we go to Diagon Alley for school supplies."

"Allright."

So Nico opened the large suitcase, frowning at the large stuffed eagle and blanket. "You need these." He said flatly, his dark eyes eyes with large bags drilling holes into his head.

"They're sentimental." Jason insisted. Nico rolled his eyes.

"Whatever," He said, and left it at that. The luggage wasn't changed too much. A few articles of clothing were it was over, Jason had two shirts and two pairs of jeans.

"There is a uniform. You'll only be able to wear normal clothing on weekends, or when we go to Hogsmeade." Lou Ellen told him.

But the rest was unchanged.

Finally, when he was satisfied,Nico stood up and straightened. Jason kept himself from wincing. Although he had gained weight, the boy was still painfully thin. Just as they were about to leave, a voice rang out.

"Wait!" And Jason saw Hazel just in time to get out of the way of her path. She ran up to Nico and hugged him tightly. Nico smiled softly, and hugged back, running his hands through her cinnamon hair. She let go and shoved a large package into his hands. "These are for all of you."

"What are they?" Jason asked.

"Brownies. From the bakery. I knew you liked them, so I got a bunch for you to take on your mission." She smiled, and sniffed. She looked like she was holding back tears. But then frowned and rounded on Nico. "And you! You'd better come and visit every once in a while. The others aren't able to shadow travel, but you can. so no excuses."

"Yes ma'am." Nico smiled, and hugged his sister once again. They stayed that way for a few moments, neither of them seemed to want to let go. Before they did, however, Hazel whispered something in his ear the that no one else could hear, to which he blushed and looked as if Hazel had said something scandalous.

She only grinned, kissed him on the cheek goodbye, and ran back to the crowd to stand with Frank.

Nico glared at the dirt. If Jason didn't know better, he would say Nico was blushing. But before he could study the boy's face enough to find out, nico grabbed his arm and the darkness took over and they left Camp Jupiter.

For about thirty seconds they went so fast Jason thought his face would peel off. They were whirling and tumbling and Jason thought he'd be sick. All he could hear was the sound of wind rushing past his ears. He prayed to his father that Nico wouldn't let go.

Then it all stopped. They landed in front of an old neighborhood. Nico was leaning against Jason, breathing hard from the exertion of shadow travel and clinging to him like a lifeline. Jason threw one of Nico's arms over his shoulder and helped the boy to stand.

"Where are we?" He asked to no one in particular.

"London."

Jason jumped. The speaker was neither Lou Ellen or Nico. But someone behind him.

He turned around and saw a man with one real eye, and another that looked glass and was moving around all on it's own. It was a vivid electric blue and unsettled Jason. He had numerous scars all over his face, and even his hands. A large portion of his nose was missing, and one of his legs was wooden. The man stared them down while his blue eye looked them and their luggage over.

"You them?" He asked in a deep growling voice.

"That depends on who you want." Nico said without missing a beat.

"Dumbledore told me there'd be three demigods arriving about right now. Said they'd be using Umbraportation. That surprised me a little. Umbraportaion is normally a bloodline gift. It's even rarer than Parseltongue." The man seemed very suspicious of the three of them.

Nico straightened himself and let go of Jason's shoulder. He looked very unsteady, but seemed to be holding himself upright.

"We're them. Is this Number Twelve Grimmauld Place?"

"What's the password?"

Nico rolled his eyes. "Phoenix."

The gruff man nodded. He introduced himself, "Alastor Moody. And yes. This is the right place."

Jason saw Nico collapse again, and caught him before scanning the buildings. There was eleven, but where twelve should be there was only a thirteen. He tried concentrating harder, thinking that it might have been hidden by the mist, but to no avail.

"Umm… Mister Moody…?" He asked, a bit hesitantly.

"Alastor. Mister Moody was my father. And the base is hidden by a Fidelius Charm. Only the Secret Keeper can reveal it's location. I've already been told, so I can let you in."

Jason nodded, not really understanding, but he supposed that he'd find out. Alastor Moody stepped in between the two buildings and Lou Ellen followed. Jason followed her and helped Nico along.

An Old building began to emerge, brick by brick to become what Jason assumed was Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. It was old, decrepit, falling apart, and pretty much disgusting. The inside, as Jason found out ten seconds later, was just as bad. The hallways were tall, thin, and poorly lit. Dust covered everything, and there were decapitated and dried heads of what looked to be bat-like elves with long noses hung on the walls in what looked to be decoration.

Nico looked like he was trying not to make a face. Lou Ellen's eyes were wide and sad looking as she looked at the strange elf heads. Her hands covered her mouth. She seemed shocked and was blinking fast.

"Disgusting, isn't it." Said a bushy haired girl who appeared out of nowhere.

Lou Ellen shook her head. "They're servants. House Elves are meant to be treated with respect. Not have their heads used as _decoration_."

"What are House Elves?" Jason asked.

The bushy haired girl opened her mouth wide and looked like she was about to make a long speech, but then seemed to be called away when someone shouted, "Hermione! Where did you go?"

The rest of the house was just as old and disused. "This place has been empty for years." Alastor explained. "Sirius Blacks is lending it to us for use by the Order. We've only just gotten it barely livable."

"Sirius Black?" Lou Ellen asked. "Isn't he an escaped convict?"

What?

"Innocent. He was framed."

Lou Ellen didn't say anything else, but she still looked bothered.

Alastor continued talking and led them to what looked to be the kitchen and dining room. "We were about to sit down for some lunch." He said. "Any of you hungry?"

Nico didn't say anything, but both Jason and Lou Ellen nodded.

"Alright. Molly!" Alastor yelled. "I've got three more for you."

There was some clanging of pots and a large red headed woman with rosy cheeks bustled out of the kitchen. She smiled brightly and ran up to introduce herself. "Hello, dears. Lunch will be on the table in just a few minutes. Why don't you sit down?" She frown when she saw Nico and helped him sit down. Jason didn't notice how much he had been relying on Jason until Nico let go.

he supposed Shadow Travel took more out of Nico then he thought. Nico rested his head on the table, his arms making a bony looking pillow.

"Can Lou Ellen and I help at all?" Jason asked. It seemed only polite. According to Nico's note the three of them would be staying here till school started. He didn't want to be a burden.

"Oh, well you two can set the table if you'd like. I was going to have Harry and Ron do it, but if you're volunteering then feel free. Could I have your name, if you don't mind?" Molly led Jason and Lou Ellen and showed them where the plates and silverware were kept.

"My name is Jason," He said.

"And I'm Lou Ellen. The one passed out at the table is Nico. Shadow traveling takes a lot out of him."

Molly gasped. "Shadow travel? But he's so young. I knew you'd be arriving with Umbraportation, but I didn't think it'd be you three performing it."

Jason laughed, "Well, we've all specialized in really specific forms of magic. I think Lou Ellen is the only one who knows your sort of magic, though."

"Really?" Molly frowned, "Well, forgive me if I'm being rude, but how will you succeed at Hogwarts? You'll be in Harry's year, and fifth year magic is fairly advanced. If you don't even know the basics…" She said as she trailed off looking concerned.

"We were told that Professor Dumbledore would explain classes to us." Lou Ellen answered smoothly.

"Well, alright." Molly said, brightening again. "Well, move along. The table won't set itself, and lunch is nearly done!" She waved her wand and a large stack of plates floated into Jason's arms, while a box of silverware floated into Lou Ellen's arms. After that, both of them were cheerfully bustled out into the dining room.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Dreams. They were strange and curious things that most people would wake up in the morning and forget about. And for for most people, they usually held no importance.

Unfortunately, Nico di Angelo was not most people.

Nico di Angelo was a demigod, and a Son of Hades at that. He was not destined for good or easy dreams; he'd be plagued by nightmares his entire life.

He was lucky this time. The dream he had wasn't a nightmare. More of a warning, he supposed.

See, there was something that neither he, nor Lou Ellen had discussed on their quest. It was something that he'd told Lou Ellen in private, and written in Jason note with details of the quest.

The prophecy. The one that every demigod had to get for a quest to be approved by Chiron.

In his dream there had dog. A huge black dog that looked all too similar to a Hellhound, or a Grim as the wizards called them.

The dog was sleeping in old velvety rags that looked like they'd seen better days. Much like the old house they were staying in Next to it was a stag with soft brown fur, nudging the dog in a playful manner. Perched on the stag's antlers was a skinny and slightly bald rat. And behind them was a massive wolf. With a jolt Nico realized it was a werewolf.

A dog, a stag, a rat, and a werewolf.

This had to be the strangest combination of werewolves that Nico had ever seen in a dream. And that included a dream he'd had about a new Mythomagic card set.

The dog opened it's mouth and began speaking, which Nico found odd because dogs couldn't talk.

"'_You shall go East, and face the Inquisitor's rage.'"_

Then the stag started talking.

"'_Four houses will unite, but the army will be razed.'"_

The rat spoke next a in a squeaking, shuddering voice.

"'_Hecate's child will sleep forever in The Veil.'" _

And finally, the massive werewolf who's voice was calm and wise for a beast so fearsome.

"_And the Angel's love is doomed to fail.'" _

And with the final chilling note, Nico's dream faded out. And the next thing he knew he was lying on a rickety, but surprisingly comfortable bed. Above him, it looked like somebody had casted a spell to balance another bed above him, creating a makeshift bunk bed that Jason's SPQR blanket was hanging off of. Jason was nearly uncovered, though thankfully (for the little innocence that Nico retained) Jason was wearing an old t-shirt. The same makeshift bunk bed was done with two other beds on the other side of the room. A red haired boy with a long nose was sleeping on the top bunk. The bottom bunk was unoccupied.

He wondered who carried him up here. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep at the table. It was shame. The lady, Molly her name was, reminded him of Hazel. He hated missing a meal that Hazel cooked. She worked hard on it, and Nico felt it was rude to not eat it. The only downside was that Hazel like to cook a lot of food, and Nico usually couldn't even finish a plate. Which in turn made her worry.

Nico's stomach growled and he realized that he couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten. That was bad. He had to keep track or he'd forget. Groaning, he lifted himself out of the bed and dug into his suitcase that somebody (Jason, most likely) had brought up. He got out some fresh clothes and threw them on before heading downstairs in search of didn't want to eat, but his stomach would kill him if he didn't..

Hazel would insist on eggs with them, with cheese and juice, but Nico felt queasy at the thought. It took a lot of effort just to scarf toast down and not throw up. He felt like the grease would tip the scale.

Juice sounded good, though. Maybe some dry toast.

When he entered the kitchen, everyone turned to look at him as if he were a walking corpse.

"Morning," He said with a s little energy as was possible. He was still shaky from the shadow travel.

Molly and a black haired boy with emerald green eyes that were behind round glasses were sitting at a boy looked very uncomfortable. She looked shocked to see him. He didn't say anything. Four other adults were at the table. Two of them, a red haired man he assumed was Molly's husband and a woman with bright purple hair, looked dressed for work; though the purple haired woman looked like she just got off work. Molly was wearing a purple quilted dressing gown.

"Why are you up?" The bespectacled boy asked.

"Sorry?" Nico asked, slightly confused.

"Well, it's rather early." He said. Molly shushed him.

"Don't be rude, Harry." Ah… So this was the famous Harry Potter that he had heard so much from Lou Ellen about. And all the books she had lent him. The boy that survived the killing curse. Nico looked him over. He wasn't that bad looking.

Molly walked over to the fire and waved her wand. "What would you like for breakfast, dear? Porridge? Muffins? Kippers? Bacon and Eggs? Toast?"

Nico cleared his throat. "Uh, toast is fine." He said lamely, not really used to the direct attention coming from someone who wasn't Hazel.

Molly handed him a plate piled with several slices of toast. Nico's heart sank. He wouldn't be able to finish this all, and he didn't want to be rude to the kind woman. She put a glass of juice and a bowl of butter down in front of him with the plate.

"Thanks." He muttered with his head down.

The purple haired woman started talking. "Anyways… I'll have to tell Dumbledore that I can't take next night's shift, tomorrow. I'm just too t-t-tired." She said, yawning hugely.

"I'll cover for you." Molly's husband said. He was wearing a strange pin striped suit and a bomber jacket similar to his own. "It's okay. I've got a report I need to finish anyway…"

He turned from the purple haired woman to Harry.

"How are you feeling, Harry?"

Harry shrugged.

"It'll all be over soon." Said the red haired man with a bracing voice. "In a few hours time you'll be cleared."

Harry said nothing. Nico also chose not to say anything. Whatever this was seemed interesting, and anyways, wasn't he supposed to be his guard at the school they were going to? He should learn whatever he could.

The red haired man continued talking. "The hearings on my floor, in Amelia Bones's office. She's head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and she'll be the one questioning you."

"Amelia bones is okay, Harry" Said the purple haired woman earnestly. "She's fair,she'll hear you out."

Nico couldn't help but snort at that statement. One of the adults at the table, a proud and thin looking man with long dark hair and a gaunt face glared at him.

"Got something to say, have you?"

Nico glared back. "No. Just in my experience, people who are fair in their judgements are hard to find."

The gaunt man looked like he was about to say more, but a ragged man next to him in patched clothes placed a hand on his shoulder. "Sirius…" He warned.

The man, Sirius, back down and turned to Harry. "Don't lose your temper." He said, and it was all Nico could do to keep from laughing at the irony. "Be polite and stick to the facts."

Harry nodded again, but was staring at Nico. Nico felt his heart skip a beat.

"The law's on your side." The ragged man said. "Even underage wizards are allowed to use magic in life threatening situations."

Molly started attacking the boy's unruly, jet black hair with a comb. She frowned when it didn't seem to do anything but ignore all attempts of taming. "Doesn't it ever lie flat?" She said desperately.

Harry shook his head.

The red haired man stood up and looked at his watch.

"I think we'll go now." He said. We're a bit early, but you'll be better off there then hanging around here."

They all said their goodbyes, and Molly hugged Harry and kissed him on the cheek.

The red haired man led Harry down the hall. Nico almost followed them, but didn't when he realized that Lou Ellen and Jason might miss him. That and while he was recharged, he'd rather not pass out again. His energy was better spent elsewhere.

Sirius continued to glare at Nico while he finished, or tried to finish, his toast. In all honesty he couldn't eat more than one slice. He did drink at least two glasses of juice. Juice was always good after shadow traveling. Any fluids with lots of sugar were good after shadow traveling,

really. Nico prefered Coke, but he juice was just as good.

Molly seemed to notice this and replaced the toast with a bowl of sliced fruit. Nico looked up at her in surprise.

"Mana depletion, dear." She said with a smile. "It's common in wizards who are using wandless magic. Dumbledore told us you might be suffering from it. Sugary foods always help take the edge off."

Then ragged looking man nodded. "It's why we were surprised to see you up. Dumbledore didn't expect you'd be up for days. He said that you used Umbraportation to travel from New York all the way here. He was shocked. He believed it would be an older wizard who'd be bringing you."

Nico began eating the fruit and was pleased to find that it did help. It was strange that even after five years he hadn't noticed sugar helped with the tiredness.

He felt something cold trickle down his neck and jumped in shock, but it was only Molly attacking his hair with the comb she'd used on Harry. She steadied him with a warm hand on his shoulder. He hunched down and kept eating his fruit with a little more vigor than he intended.

He was Italian, for goodness sakes. Italians didn't eat their food like savage animals. They savoured it.

"San Francisco, actually." He mumbled.

Sirius, who glaring had only intensified as the conversation went on, coughed.

"Sorry?" The man asked, with wide eyes.

"I shadow traveled from New York to San Francisco to pick up Jason, then I shadow travelled here."

"That's impossible." Sirius countered.

"Maybe for you." Nico said. He stood up with his bowl. molly had finished combing his hair and was now tending to the fire. "Umm…" He said to Molly, not sure if he should address her by her given name.

"Mrs. Weasley, or Molly if you prefer." She said with a bright smile.

"Thank you for the food, Mrs. Weasley." He said, "Where would you like me to put my bowl?"

"In the sink. There's more fruit in the kitchen if you'd like."

"Thank you," He said and started to head for the kitchen.

"Oh! I never caught your name, dear." Molly said.

Nico turned around with a polite smile. "Nico di Angelo."

Sirius looked at him as if he'd seen a ghost, but Nico ignored him in favor of turning to the kitchen for another bowl of fruit.

..

The rest of the day passed without much fuss. Sirius Black seemed to avoid him like the plague, which he was welcome to in Nico's opinion. He tried to ignore people who glared at him the moment they met him. Not only that, but the man's face was familiar. Too familiar that it was unsettling.

Nico met the rest of Molly's family. Aside from the red haired man, Arthur Weasley, there were four others (all with red hair). In order they were Fred and George, Ron, and Ginny. The red haired boy in Nico's room was Ron.

The ragged man, Nico found out, was Remus Lupin.

"I'm afraid I should also inform you that I am a werewolf." He said while introducing himself.

Nico couldn't stop himself. "A werewolf?" He said, wincing internally at how rude he sounded.

Lupin nodded gravely. "Yes. You'll be guarding Harry while at school, so I feel you should be informed of any possible situation."

"And that situation would be?"

"I'm a werewolf. Incidents may happen." Lupin said, looking regretful. Nico assumed something did happen. "It is, however very unlikely."

"Yeah." Nico said. Wait… "You said your name was Remus Lupin?"

"Yes." He said. "Wolf names are traditional in my family. My father's was Lyall Lupin."

"I see…" Nico said. He saw Sirius out of the corner of his eye listening in. He looked like he'd been there a while and seemed very protective of Lupin. Nico ignored him. He didn't care what Sirius thought of him. "Well, no offense, but no wonder you were bitten."

"Excuse me?" Remus sounded angry.

Nico could see Sirius about to pounce from the corner of his eye.

Nico couldn't stop himself now. He was in too deep. "Well, no offense meant, but what self respecting werewolf would pass up the chance to bite you? You're literally named Werewolf McWerewolf the Second."

Immediately the anger and insult disappeared from Lupin's face and was replaced by something else. He still looked somewhat hurt, and Nico felt a bit guilty from his rudeness, but he also looked a bit curious.

"I'm sorry," Nico said looking down. "That was rude."

Lupin waved his hand. "It is forgiven. I must admit, I haven't met anyone brave enough to say anything like that to my face since Harry's father, James. We were best friends in school."

"Really?"

"Yes. And, as much as I wish that I was bitten for something as petty as my name, unfortunately I was not. When I was five years old, my father angered a werewolf who went by the name of Fenrir Greyback. Fenrir bit me as an act of revenge against my father."

Nico looked up at Lupin, and felt a spark of kinship with the man. When Nico had only been a year older than Lupin, his uncle, Lord Zeus, King of the Gods, had killed his mother as an act of revenge against his father, Hades, King of the Underworld.

"I'm sorry." Nico said with utmost sincerity. "Children shouldn't be brought into their families wars."

Lupin nodded gravely, and regarded Nico with a mournful expression. "I only wish it were so." And then turned to Sirius.

"Sirius, please stop looking as if you wish to strangle Mr. di Angelo. It was only years ago that you and James pelted me with such jokes on a near daily basis."

Nico snorted and smirked at the guilty expression on Sirius's face. "You were friends with Mr. Lupin as well, sir?" He asked.

Sirius growled and left the room, shaking his head and muttering about impossibilities and doppelgangers.

Lupin frowned as well, and followed Sirius out of the room. Nico followed, but shrouded himself in the shadows so as to remain unseen.

"Sirius, what is it?" Lupin asked as he followed the grumpy man down the thin hallway.

Sirius looked over his shoulder. "Not here," He said. "The bloody kid could be following us with that creepy shadow arts of his."

"Sirius." Lupin said tiredly.

"Lupin, you know well enough that the only reason the Ministry hasn't outright banned Umbrakinesis that there is no way known to outlaw it. You can't learn it, you have to be born with it. And the ones who are born with it are always draped in the Dark Arts. He'll be a right Slytherin, that one."

"He seems like a perfectly decent boy. And even if he is in Slytherin, that doesn't make him evil." Lupin argued. "Molly is in love with him."

Sirius huffed. "Yes, well they always seem lovely, don't they?" His voiced cracked, and Nico almost felt a pang of sympathy for the man.

Lupin paused. then he walked up beside Sirius as they continued down the Hallway and to a different room. "Sirius, no one could have predicted Peter's-"

But Nico never got to find out what Peter did as they shut the door to the room they went in, muffling their conversation. He heard the door lock and afterwards a faint buzzing noise covered anything he could have heard through the crack in the door.

Damn wizards and their spells. He'd have to learn some.

Nico decided there would be nothing to do continue with here, and went off to find something else to do.

He didn't have to wait long, Mrs. Weasley had started to wake up everyone and was enlisting everyone's help for cleaning the old house. Nico went down to go help. He wanted to learn more about this place.

**A/N Yup. I did it. So there is a joke I found on tumblr with Remus's name. I used it. It's a terrible joke, and I feel like Marauders would have used it a lot in their school days. I also feel like Nico would have pointed it as well, considering he's an impulsive little shit who rarely thinks before he acts. **

**I mean, c'mon. He threatened a Manticore that was about to kill him and his sister when he was eight (ten?) years old, he called his father out on his shit when he was thirteen, and then he jumped into Tartarus, of all places, without a thought when he was fourteen. **

**I feel like doing that stuff requires you to be on the impulsive and act without thinking side. **

**And most people wouldn't call a werewolf Werewolf McWerewolf unless they had a habit of acting without thinking. **


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Three days had passed for Lou Ellen and her teammates at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. Their time was spent cleaning for the most part. Currently Lou Ellen was helping Harry, Hermione (the bushy haired girl she had met when they arrived), and Ron clean a mold infested cupboard in an upstairs bedroom.

The trio didn't exactly look thrilled to see of the non-Order inhabitants of the house had been suspicious of them since they'd arrived; some of the Order members as well.

And it wasn't like they didn't have reason to be suspicious. Sirius had undoubtedly told Harry of Nico's Umbrakinesis, who would have in turn told Ron and Hermione. Umbrakinesis was considered a Dark Magic and was therefore not trusted. However the Ministry was unable to ban it because in order to use it, you had to be born with the gift.

"So." She said while scrubbing a particularly stubborn spot of mold. "Tell me about Hogwarts."

The trio looked at her with a bit of confusion and trepidation.

"Just trying to make conversation."

Ron narrowed his eyes. "Why? How do we know you're not in with You-Know-Who?"

Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron. "Ronald!" She said with exasperation. "This is just silly. She couldn't be with You-Know-Who. She supports S.P.E.W."

"I'm in support of what now?" Lou Ellen asked, having never heard of S.P.E.W. Ron and Hermione ignored her in favor of bickering..

"She doesn't even know what it is, Hermione!"

"You heard what she said when they came in here a few days ago. Remember? With the elf heads?"

"Hermione, most sane wizards are against using dried elf heads as decoration."

Lou Ellen sighed and returned to scrubbing her mold spot.

"So what's America like?" Harry asked her suddenly. Ron and Hermione stopped their fighting and turned to her.

Lou Ellen was caught by surprise. "I-uh…"

"Yes!" Hermione said excitedly. "Lupin told us that you, Jason, and Nico were from New York. What's it like there? Did you go to the Manhattan Institute?" Her bushy brown hair billowed around her.

"Uh… Well, I was homeschooled for the most part by my father who went to Hogwarts, actually. And and I spent my summers at a New York summer camp type of school that teaches Battle Magic, but Nico went year round. Jason too, but he went to a school in San Francisco." Stick to the story, she told herself.

The story was that Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter were schools for Battle Magic. It was a wandless type of magic that was common overseas due to the clan warfare that was rampant in the Americas and their pitifully small and weak wizarding government that was unable to put an end to it. Most muggles assumed that the spats were gang warfare.

Hermione looked disappointed at Lou Ellen's lack of a formal education in traditional magic.

Ron, however looked interested. "What's battle magic?"

Hermione answered before Lou Ellen got a chance. The answer sounded like something she had gotten out of a textbook. Ron looked impressed. "You can do wandless magic? That's insane. Most wizard your age wouldn't be able to levitate a pencil without their wand."

Lou Ellen nodded, "Yes. But the younger wizards could do much more than that."

"Really? Why?"

"Because it's all they know, and therefore they practice it while they are able to. But then they get their wands and the ability goes away due to disuse."

Ron grinned, all suspicion gone. "Wow! So I could learn it?"

Lou Ellen raised her eyebrow. "Yes. You could. All wizards would have the ability. But it would take lots of practice and hard work."

"Could you teach me?" Ron asked.

This was it, Lou Ellen realized. This was an in to their group and to keep tabs on them while they were at school. She smirked inwardly. Yes, none of them would suspect that She and her teammates were actually secret bodyguards.

"Certainly. I would love to. I can ask Nico and Jason if they want to join in as well."

Ron screwed up his face. Lou Ellen leaned in close to him.

"Do you have a problem with Nico?" She asked in a low and calm voice, with just enough danger in it.

Ron paled and shook his head.

At this point Mrs. Weasley poked her head into the bedroom behind them.

"Still not finished?" She said, inspecting the cupboard.

"I thought you might be here to give us a break!" said Ron bitterly. "Do you have any idea how much mold we've gotten rid of since we arrived here?"

"You wanted to help the Order," said Mrs. Weasley, "You can do your bit by making the headquarters fit to live in."

"I feel like a house elf," grumbled Ron.

"Well, now you understand what terrible lives they lead, perhaps you'll be a bit more active in S.P.E.W.!" said Hermione hopefully, as Mrs. Weasley left them in the room alone again. "You know, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to show people how horrible it is to clean all the time- we could do a sponsored scrub of the Gryffindor common room, all proceeds to S.P.E.W, it would raise awareness as well as funds-"

"I'll sponsor you to shut up about _spew_." Ron muttered irritably, but only Harry and Lou Ellen could hear him. hermione was too busy rambly on about S.P.E.W., and the more Lou Ellen heard, the more she was interested about learning more, if only to get to know Hermione better. She seemed bright, and the type that would quickly discover that Lou Ellen and her teammates were not all who they seemed.

Harry tapped her shoulder. "You never answered my question." He said.

"I didn't?" asked Lou Ellen.

"The one about America. What's it like there?"

Lou Ellen felt her heart skip a beat as she looked into his bright, emerald green eyes. "I'll tell you if you tell me about Hogwarts."

…

Days passed, and Lou Ellen found herself daydreaming about the mountainous landscapes, and the Quidditch pitch that Harry went into detail describing. The thing that Hogwarts, a History would never have been able to write down. She dreamed about anything to get herself away from this horrible, dust filled, musty house.

Booklists came on the last day of the summer break and Hermione and Ron became prefects. Mrs. Weasley took Lou Ellen with her when she went to get their books and the three of them got their wands, uniforms, and books.

Their trip to Ollivanders was quite… Interesting, to say the least.

When they entered the shop with , the money they'd been allotted for the quest jangling happily in Nico's bag, the shop was empty. Or seemed empty. Boxes of wands were piled clear to the ceiling of the tiny store.

There was small rickety chair in the corner that Mrs. Weasley sat down on while they waited.

They didn't have to wait very long.

"Ah! It's always good to see family." said a soft voice. Lou Ellen jumped and spun around to face a man with white grey eyes, and even whiter hair. She, Jason, and Nico stared at him while Mrs. Weasley hummed and began checking the school lists.

"Yes," the old man said, "I've been expecting you," he pointed at Lou Ellen, "For quite a while. You came a bit later than expected, however."

"Yah. I ended up doing most of my study in the States."

Ollivander tutted disapprovingly. Nevertheless, he waved his wand and a measuring tape appeared. "I'll start with you, young lady." He came in close to Lou Ellen, "What is your wand arm?"

Lou Ellen had never used a wand. She had never needed to. "Well, I'm left-handed."

"Hold out your arm. Good." He measured everywhere Lou Ellen could think of. Her waist, around her head, finger to wrist, than wrist to elbow, round her knees, knee to the top of her feet. When he was done measuring Lou Ellen he went onto Nico and Jason. Lou Ellen was impressed when he didn't flinch at the glare Nico sent him when Ollivander measured the length of Nico's ears.

"Every Ollivander wand has a core of magical two Ollivanders wand is the same, just as no two magical substances are quite the same. And of course, you will never get very good results with another wizards wand."

Ollivander began flitting around the room, taking down boxes, and the tape measure kept on taking the measurements for Jason's fingernails.

"Mahogany and phoenix feather. Ten inches. Very stubborn, this one- no, no." As soon as he handed Lou Ellen the wand it jumped out of her hands and hit a stack of boxes behind the counter, making them tumble to the ground. He continued on handing her another wand. That one made a window explode. He shook his head and snatched it out of her hand. Wand after wand, then finally, his eyes landed on a velvet box buried on an old shelf on the right hand side of the corner.

"Of course," muttered Ollivander. "Why didn't I think of it? Yew, unicorn tail hair, fifteen inches. Excellent for healing and just as good at cursing." He gave it to Lou Ellen and she felt a warmth spread throughout her entire body. Ollivander smiled in triumph.

"I've had that wand for many years, Miss Jones. Take good care of it."

He moved on to Nico.

Nico took even longer than Lou Ellen. Every wand Ollivander tried seemed to leap out of Nico hands. His very touch seemed to, if Lou Ellen didn't know better, terrify the wands. Though maybe it did, because she swore she saw Ollivander muttering to them in a comforting way after he had snatched them out of Nico's hand, or picked them up off the floor.

It was to be known, however, that instead of upsetting Ollivander, he only seemed excited.

"I do love a difficult one!" He said as he searched through towers of boxes. The he gasped, as if he had found one he hadn't been expecting. He began laughing. "Oh! Two! Two in one day!"

He raced over and put a black obsidian box on the counter. "Black Poplar wood, Thestral tail hair, thirteen inches. Perfect for necromancy._Unyielding. _"

Lou Ellen heard Mrs. Weasley gasp and look up from the school lists. "Mr. Ollivander, I wasn't aware you used those materials."

Ollivander nodded in agreement. "Not normally, no. I almost never diverge from unicorn tail hair, phoenix feathers, and dragon heartstring. But I was given the materials as payment for an… errand given to me from my great uncle."

Nico's eyebrows rose at the statement.

Ollivander kept speaking as he brushed his fingers over the polished black wood. "It is a masterpiece, one of my finest, I do believe. However it has been here since I was a young man. Here, give it a wave."

Nico took it, and a green mist started coming off of him. Ollivander took the wand back with an "Excellent…"

He handed the wand and the box to Nico, who stood next to Lou Ellen with a dumbfounded expression. He then cleared his face and look worriedly at Mrs. Weasley who was clutching her lists, no longer humming, and looked very pale. Nico looked down, blinking very fast.

Lou Ellen felt a pang of sympathy. She supposed it was very hard to be a son of Hades, and she knew what it was like to not feel welcome at Camp Half-Blood with her mother not only being a goddess of the Underworld, but only recently even having a cabin. She grasped his hand, hoping that the gesture wouldn't be rejected, and offered him a small smile.

He looked up, but he didn't return the smile. However, Lou Ellen noted that he didn't let go of her hand.

Jason's wand was found much quicker than Nico's or Lou Ellen's. The second one he tried- Oak, phoenix feather, twelve inches- shot sparks of lightning in the air, and a Golden Eagle erupted from the tip.

Lou Ellen saw Nico gaze at Jason with a faint smile on his lips, and his eyes softened more than she had ever seen them. She couldn't help but smile as well at the knowledge that Nico was enjoying himself again.

The three of them paid for their wands and went on to acquire uniforms and books. Mrs. Weasley dropped them off at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasion's and hurried off to purchase the books they'd be needing. Afterwards Mrs. Weasley hurried into a Quidditch shop while Jason, Nico, and Lou Ellen explored what seemed to be a wizarding pet store. Most of the animals seemed to be wary of Lou Ellen and Nico, except for a litter two of pure black kittens.

"Oh, you don't want them," said the shop owner quickly, "Don't even know why I bought them. They growl and hiss and bite everyone who even tries to touch-" He stopped in shock when he saw the two purring a playing with Lou Ellen and Nico. He gaped, then said. "Are you looking for kittens?" in a rather hopeful manner. When the two of them said they were going to Hogwarts the shop owner told them they were allowed to bring a cat.

Lou Ellen watched Nico smile at the kitten, and rubb it's head. She didn't think that she had ever seen him with an animal. She wondered what kind of cat the two kittens were. Most animals were afraid of the children of underworld gods. But these kittens weren't. They purred and purred, content to lay in their arms, trusting them completely.

"Nico, do you want to get them?"

Nico looked hesitant, and the kitten looked up at him with wide baby blue eyes. Slowly, Nico nodded.

The shop owner looked like he was about to cr,. but not tears of sadness. He went in the back and came back with two crates, a bag of food, dishes for food and water, and a couple of toys. "On the house," he said with a quivering voice. Lou Ellen noted that he had several fresh scratches that looked quite nasty and almost green.

"Where did you get those?" she asked.

The shopkeeper's eyes darted to the quite innocent looking kittens when he said with a high terrified voice, "Nowhere!"

The kittens kept purring, and the one Lou Ellen was holding kneaded her chest with black fearsome claws.

Jason waited till they got to Eeylops Owl Emporium, then fell in love with an large and proud looking Eagle Owl. Afterwards they wandered into a candy shop where Jason and Nico bought enough to feed a small army.

They met back up with Mrs. Weasley who was carrying a broom shaped package, and snacked on their candy on the way home.

It was about six O'clock when the four of them returned to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place and while Lou Ellen and her teammates were putting away their purchases hung a banner in the basement over a dinner table filled to the bursting with food that congratulated Hermione and Ron for becoming prefects.

Everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Even Sirius Black had lifted his usual gloomy and sulking facade and was singing and toasting just about everyone, even Nico. Lou Ellen couldn't help but smile as well. Tomorrow she'd be going to Hogwarts and leaving this gloomy house.

Suddenly they heard a shriek come from upstairs, and Lou Ellen saw Nico run towards the yell. She raced after him through the dark hallways and entered a bedroom where a figure Lou Ellen recognized as Mrs. Weasley was huddled, sobbing, and shouting _riddikulus _over and over again.

It was a boggart, Lou Ellen realized. And it was turning into the bodies of what Lou Ellen knew to be her family members, even Harry, who she saw come up behind her from the corner of her eye. But then it started shifting again into a much more familiar shape. Percy. Lou Ellen turned back toward Mrs. Weasley.

Nico was in front of her, trying to get her out of the room. But he stopped when he saw Boggart!Percy. Boggart! Percy's face morphed into a cruel look she'd never, not once, seen Percy wear, and he said in a low, hateful voice,

"_Faggot." _

Nico's face paled to a new level of white.

"_Do you honestly think I could ever love someone like you?" _said Boggart! Percy.

By now a crowd had gathered. Nico was still shielding Mrs. Weasley from the boggart, but he was shaking, and Lou Ellen thought he might faint. SHe wanted to rush into the room and grab him, but was frozen where she stood at the thought of what the Boggart might turn into for her.

"_You're a fucking freak, Nico! No one wants you, so why not you just go-!" CRACK! _

The boggart transformed once more, this time into a silvery orb. Lupin was standing in front of Nico.

"_Riddikulus._" He said very calmly and firmly. The orb vanished in a puff of smoke.

Molly was still sobbing. Lupin walked over to her, trying to comfort her. Nico stood shock still and pale white.

"It was just a boggart, Molly. Just a stupid boggart." he said, patting Mrs. Weasley's head while she sobbed her heart onto his shoulder.

Lou Ellen tried to walk up to Nico, not sure of what to do but wanting to comfort him as well, yet he vanished into the shadows before she could do anything. She was left standing there in the doorway confused and worried when Jason ran up next to her, asking what happened. When she answered he took off as well.

Eventually, after Mrs. Weasley started sobbing about her family, Lou Ellen left the doorway. She felt she was intruding, and decided she'd hide in the room she shared with Hermione and Ginny and read one a book about old potions her mother had given Lou Ellen once for her thirteenth birthday.

She curled up in her bed, feeling guilty and confused about Nico. She'd started the evening off excited for the next day, now she just wanted to cry.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Jason searched and searched and searched, but he couldn't find Nico anywhere. Eventually he resigned himself to the fact that Nico wouldn't be found until the next day when everyone left for Hogwarts.

Jason wanted to punch something.

This was the second time Nico had, not only been forced out, but ejected out of the closet, in the absolute most brutal way he could imagine.

What was that thing? He wondered. He had only caught a glimpse of it. The thing that looked like Percy, but wasn't. Jason couldn't imagine Percy ever wearing such a cruel and judgemental expression, while spouting such horrid words.

Jason wanted to find Nico and prevent him from doing anything stupid or rash. But Jason knew Nico wouldn't be found unless he wanted to be found.

Eventually, Jason made his way back to his room. It seemed hard to believe that only a few hours ago he'd laughed in Diagon Alley with Nico, while they bought more candy than they could ever hope to eat.

He thought about eating some of the candy, but it felt wrong to do it without Nico. The kitten, named Dee20, that Nico had bought earlier was purring contentedly on Nico's bed. Jason tried to pet it, but the small thing let out a growl that sounded like it would suit a tiger better.

With a heavy heart he climbed to his bed, wrapped himself in his SPQR blanket and went to sleep.

Jason's dreams were filled with Thalia drifting in and out of them, firing silver tipped arrows at him, and wearing what looked like punk rock angel wings with a silvery toga. Piper was in them too, well, her head. The rest of her was a dove. She was flying him away from Thalia, while he tried to tell her that she didn't need to carry him. He could fly on his own.

Leo flew the air with mechanical dragon wings, throwing wrenches at Thalia, and yelling at her to stop bullying Jason.

When Jason woke up he didn't remember a thing. He did feel very confused.

Nico was sleeping curled up in his bed, wearing his clothes from last night., and was clenching his kitten in a death grip. He wasn't covered by his blanket, and looked cold, so Jason took his and covered the boy.

He dressed and ate breakfast as fast as he could, then went back upstairs to take his luggage downstairs. By that time, the entire house was in a sort of commotion. Fred and George seemed to have thought it would be a good idea to bewitch their trunks to fly down the stairs on their own, which resulted in Ginny falling down two flights of stairs.

Ron was waking Harry and Nico up in their room. Nico handed Jason his blanket with a dead look in his eyes. Jason took it, and asked quietly so Ron and Harry wouldn't hear, "Do you want to talk?"

Nico didn't answer. He just put Dee20 into her crate

Lou Ellen walked in with Gnat, the other kitten they'd bought, and packed her into the crate with Dee20. She also tried to talk to Nico, but he ignored her as well.

Outside the room, the house was still in complete disarray.

"-COULD HAVE CAUSED HER SERIOUS INJURy, YOU IDIOTS-"

"-FILTHY HALF BREEDS, BESMIRCHING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS-"

Mrs. Weasley was yelling at the top of her lungs at Fred and George, while the portrait of Sirius's mother that Jason had learned about when he'd tripped on the stairs while carrying buckets of cleaning supplies a couple days ago, was also yelling obscenities. Jason hated the portrait and felt personally offended by it's presence because of his Half-Blood status. He knew it had something called a Permanent Sticking Charm on it, attaching the portrait to the wall, but her wondered why they didn't just tear down the wall and build a new one. They did have magic, and it shouldn't be that hard considering the house didn't have electricity.

Apparently magic and modern day exorbitance didn't mix very well.

Hermione came hurrying towards Jason and the others as they carried their luggage down the rickety stairs. She was holding her own cat, Crookshanks, in her arms

"Mum and Dad just sent Hedwig back." Harry's owl, hedwig, was also perched on Hermione's shoulders. Apparently she had borrowed her to send a letter. "Are you ready yet?"

"Nearly," said Harry. His shirt was half buttoned, and one of his socks was mis matched. He was also missing his glasses. Nico handed them to him.

"Thanks," Harry put on his glasses, "Is Ginny okay?"

"Mrs. Weasley patched her up," said Hermione. "But now Mad-Eye is complaining that we can't leave unless Sturgis Podmore is here, otherwise the guard will be one short."

"Guard?" said Harry, "We have to go to King's Cross with a guard?"

Jason was also confused. Weren't he, Nico, and Lou Ellen Harry's guards?

"_You_ have to go to King's Cross with a guard." Hermione corrected him.

"Why?" asked Harry. He sounded irritated. "I thought Voldemort was to be lying low? Now you're telling me he's going to jump out behind a dustbin and do me in?"

"I don't know, it' just what Mad Eye says." said Hermione distractedly. "But if we don't leave soon we're definitely going to miss the train..."

"WILL YOU LOT GET DOWN HERE PLEASE?" Mrs. Weasley bellowed. Hermione jumped and hurried out of the room with Lou Ellen and Nico following her, both pulling their trunks and the extra suitcase holding their armor and weaponry.

Jason stuffed his SPQR blanket into his suitcase with his armor without ceremony, while Harry did the same with Hedwig and her cage. then they went to join the others.

Mrs. Black was still screaming with rage, but no one was bothering to close the curtains over her portrait, because all of the noise in the hallway was bound to rouse her anyways.

"Harry, Jason, Lou Ellen, and Nico you're to come with me and Tonks!" Mrs. Weasley shouted over Mrs. Blacks repeated screeches of "_MUDBLOODS! FILTH! CREATURES OF DIRT!" _"Everyone, leave your luggage, Alastor's going to deal with it… Oh, for heaven's sake, Sirius, Dumbledore said no!"

A large black dog that looked eerily like a Hellhound bounded into the sat next to Harry, wagging it's tail. Jason saw that Nico had gone pale white again and heard gasp. He was staring at the dag as if he had seen it before. Jason just wondered where the dog had come from as he hadn't seen it in the house before.

"Oh, honestly, Sirius… Well, on your own head, be it!" said Mrs. Weasley as she opened the door. Jason was shocked with the realization the the dog was Sirius. As they left the house, Jason watched as it faded away.

They met Tonks on the end street where she was disguised as an old woman who looked like she should have been in a nursing home instead of on the edge of a sketchy looking street.

Sirius leapt around the street in his dog form joyously as they walked to King Cross., chasing after a pigeons, and barking at passerby. Jason wondered how long he'd been cooped up in the awful house. No wonder he had been so grumpy and gloomy.

Harry, Lou Ellen, and Jason laughed, and even Nico almost grinned, only encouraging Sirius's antics, but Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips disapprovingly. Tonks hobbled alongside them all with her cane, waving it playfully at Sirius. They looked like a family that was out for a morning stroll.

The walk took about twenty minutes, and luckily nothing more eventful happened than Sirius scaring a couple of cats. With a sinking feeling Jason realized that There hadn't been one monster attack since the quest started a month ago. He knew that something would happen, and he dreaded what it would be.

SOmething inside of him wondered if maybe the Fidelius Charm on the house had been keeping them away, or at the very least made the monsters unable to find the young demigods.

Once they arrived at the station, they saw Mad-Eye Moody arrive behind them with their trunks. Ron and Hermione arrived two minutes later, along with the others. They boarded the train, and as the train took off Jason watched Sirius bound alongside it for as long as he could.

A part of him felt sad for the man. Sirius Black was a fugitive from Azkaban, jailed for a crime he never committed. Jason knew he'd probably be bitter as well f he'd been in Sirius's position.

"He shouldn't have come with us," said Hermione worriedly.

"Oh lighten up." said Ron. "The poor bloke hasn't seen daylight in months."

Fred and George took off to discuss 'business' with a friend of theirs named Lee Jordan, and Hermione and Ron had to report to the Prefect carriage.

"I'm sure it won't be for the whole journey." said Hermione quickly. "Our letters say we just get instructions from the Head Boy and Girl and then patrol the corridors from time to time."

"Fine," said Harry, "I- I'll see you later then."

"Yeah, definitely," said Ron. "It's a pain, having to go down there, I'd rather- but we have to- I mean, I'm not enjoying it, I'm not Percy."

"Percy wouldn't have enjoyed it either." Nico jutted in. Ron ogled him, and the dark boy realized his mistake. He blushed and looked at his feet. "Sorry, different Percy."

"Yeah… Well… Bye." Ron left with Hermione, and the rest of them looked for a compartment.

"Come on," said Ginny. "If we get a move on we'll be able to save them places."

In the last carriage they met a boy Harry introduced as Neville Longbottom. He had a round face that was shining with the effort of pulling his trunk along with one hand, and his toad with the other.

"Hello, Neville," said Ginny. "Looking for a compartment?"

"Yeah…" said Neville, out of breath and struggling to keep a hand on his toad.

"What about that one?" She asked helpfully, pointing to a compartment on their far left. "It's only Luna."

"Who?" said Harry,

"Luna Lovegood. She's nice." Ginny opened the compartment door. "Hey, Luna. Is it Okay if we take these seats?"

Luna had straggly, waist length, dirty blonde hair, very pale eyebrows, and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look. Jason felt like she was just a little bit whacky. Perhaps it was the strange radish earrings she was wearing or the way she had stuck her wand behind her ear for safekeeping, or the magazine she was reading upside down. Her eyes ranged from Neville, to Harry, to Jason, and the rest of them. She nodded.

Everyone walked inside, and stacked their trunks in the storage space up above. They sat down, Nico sitting next to Neville. The girl called Luna watched them over her upside down magazine called the Quibbler. She then stared at Harry, not blinking.

"Had a good summer, Luna?" Ginny asked,

"Yes," said Luna dreamily, without taking her eyes off of Harry. "Yes, it was quite enjoyable, you know. _You're _Harry Potter."

"I know I am." said Harry.

Neville chuckled, and Luna turned to him.

"I don't know who you are."

"I'm nobody," said Neville hurriedly.

"No you're not," said Ginny sharply, "Neville Longbottom- Luna Lovegood. Luna's in my year, but in Ravenclaw."

Luna next turned her pale eyes on Jason. "And what about you? I've never seen you before, or your friends."

"Jason Grace, and that's Lou Ellen Baines and Nico di Angelo."

"Are you named after Jason of the Argonauts, by any chance?" said Luna in a dreamy voice.

"Uh, yeah, actually I am."

She nodded, "How strange. You all have Greek names. Are you related?"

Jason didn't answer, and Luna went back to reading. An awkward silence ensued.

The train kept going and soon they had gotten to the open country. The weather didn't seem to be able to make up it's mind; it flitted between bright and sunny, to overcast and gloomy. Ginny, Lou Ellen, and Luna started up a conversation about something called Witch Weekly, and different wizarding bands. Neville and Harry were talking about a short, boil covered and ugly plant, something Neville called _mimbulus mimbletonia_, while Nico scooted closer and pretended not to be interested. They seemed to be poking it with a pen.

Jason was sitting next to the window of the compartment, and he leaned his head on it. He wondered how long it would take to get to Hogwarts, and he wondered what there would be to do there. He'd read about Quidditch in one of the books they'd bought yesterday. It had been something he'd gotten for the heck of it. All three of them had- Lou Ellen had bought a book on curses, Nico had gotten something on wizarding legends, Jason had gotten a book on wizarding sports.

He wondered what it would be like to fly on a broomstick. Would it be the same as what he did? Would it be different? All the same, it sounded like fun. Maybe he would try out for the team. He was certain he'd be slow on the get go on the magic part, as everyone else had had years of training. Sports, however, seemed like something he could get into. Especially flying sports.

All of a sudden, the plant that Neville had been poking, exploded. Well, not exploded per say, but it spit thick, foul smelling dark-green ink from every single boil on the short shriveled plant.

Everyone in the compartment, especially Harry, Neville, and Nico, was instantly covered in the liquid. Jason wiped a bunch out of his eyes. It smelled worse than the manure in New Rome's pegasi stables.

Neville, whose face and torso were also drenched shook his head to ge the worst out of his eyes.

"Sorry," he gasped, "I haven't tried that before… I didn't realize it would be quite so… Don't worry, though, Stinksap's not poisonous." he said as Harry spat a mouthful onto the floor.

At that precise moment the door to their compartment slid open.

"Uh…hello, Harry." said a voice nervously. "Is this a bad time?"

Harry, who was busy wiping off the lenses of his glasses, looked up. Jason turned to look at the very pretty girl who had just walked in.

"Uh… Hi, Cho." said Harry.

The girl, Cho, looked very nervous. "Um…Well, I just thought I'd say hello… Bye then."

She closed the door and left. Harry leaned back in his seat and groaned. Jason thought he looked like Leo after every interaction with a girl that Leo had ever had.

"Never mind," said Ginny bracingly. "Look, we can get rid of all this easily. _Scourgify!_" She waved her wand and the Stinksap vanished. Jason looked at her.

"You have got to teach me that spell." said Jason. He fantasized about never having to scrub his blood out of another t-shirt.

Ginny smiled bashfully. "Well that's what you're here for, isn't it? To learn wand magic."

"You don't know wand magic?" said Luna curiously.

Jason shook his head. "No. Lou Ellen, Nico and I were all trained in Battle Magic."

Ron and Hermione didn't turn for nearly an hour after the Stinksap incident. Ron complained about a kid named Malfoy becoming Prefect as well, and joked about wanting to make another kid named Goyle write lines saying "_I… Will… Not… Look… Like… A… Baboon's… Backside…"_ Everyone except Jason and Nico laughed, even Lou Ellen. Luna screamed with mirth.

"What? It was _funny_?" Her pale eyes shined with amusement.

"No it wasn't." said Nico, who was glaring at Ron.

"Sorry?" said Ron, who turned to Nico.

"It wasn't funny. So this kid bully's you. So what? You shouldn't sink to his level and bully him back. You're a Prefect. You're supposed to set an example for the other students, not abuse that power and become a bully yourself!" Nico continued to glare at Ron with his dark, angry eyes.

Ron gaped, unsure of what to say. Jason thought that this was something he'd probably heard from Hermione, but was different coming from someone he barely knew, and not a close friend. Nico continued glaring fiercely before averting his gaze and shaking his head. He then took out his book on wizarding legends and began reading it. Everyone else stayed quiet, before Luna started talking about some article she had read in her copy of the Quibbler.

The journey continued. Harry read something from Luna's Quibbler, then Hermione got into a disagreement with Luna. And then the compartment door opened for the third time.

"You!"

They all turned to look at the sight of a pale, ferret faced boy, with pale blond hair slicked back on his head, and two gorilla like cronies behind him, pointing a finger at Lou Ellen.

"Yes, I know I'm me," said Lou Ellen disinterestedly. "Who are you?"

"Draco Malfoy," said the boy with venom, "And you- you-!"

Lou Ellen smiled sweetly. "Yes?"

Malfoy scowled violently, then slammed the compartment door. Lou Ellen smiled, hummed, and took Gnat out of her crate. SHe tickled the kitten under it's chin while the rest of the compartment goggled at her with questioning looks.

Ron was the first to ask. "Um, do you know Malfoy."

"We've met," said Lou Ellen,

"How did you do that?" said Ginny,

"Do what?"

"Get rid of him without even trying?" said Hermione,

"Oh that! We met in New York. I had heard him say muggle, and we talked. He thought I was a muggle, actually. Then i told him I was surprised because most wizards shopped in Aeronaut Alley."

Hermione looked perplexed. "I didn't know New York had an Aeronaut Alley, and I've read all about American Wizarding society in _The Diary of Harry Houdini,_ who was a famous American Wizard and Escape Artist."

Lou Ellen burst out laughing, "There isn't! I told him it was in the sky, and to ask any wizard on the street where it was. And he believed me!"

The entire compartment, Jason included was laughing. Nico was shaking his head disapprovingly, but Jason could see a smile tugging at his lips.

The weather stayed bipolar as they travelled farther and farther north. They changed into their robes just before arriving. When they got off the train, Harry told them to leave their luggage and that it would be waiting in their houses.

"Houses?" Jason asked curiously.

"Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw." said Harry.

"But we haven't been sorted yet," said Jason.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Dumbledore has got it all worked out." said Hermione. 'Why not we find Hagrid? He's rounding up the first years right now."

But instead of this 'Hagrid', they found a woman with a short haircut rounding up the First Years.

"First Years, over here! First Years, over here please!" When she saw Jason, Nico, and Lou Ellen she waved them over, "You three come with me! Dumbledore's orders!"

"Where's Hagrid?" said Hermione as Jason and his teammates went to stand with the First Years. The First Years looked up at him, Nico, and Lou Ellen with surprise, probably wondering why students that were clearly older were standing with them.

"I don't know, but we're blocking the doorway," said Ginny. They might have said more, but Jason was no longer in hearing distance.

The First Years, and Jason, Nico, and Lou Ellen were all ushered to boats that he assumed were going to be used to pass across a large glittering black lake that was in front of an enormous castle.

"The castle is the school!" Lou Ellen whispered excitedly.

Jason nodded.

"Four to a boat!" The woman yelled out.

Jason, Nico, and Lou Ellen clamoured into a boat along with a tiny First Year who introduced herself as Melinda Goodheart, who turned out to be a fan of mythomagic. While they floated over the lake she and Nico jabbered on about different card sets.

Finally, they reached the school. Two large double doors greeted them when they walked up to the castle. A stern looking witch, who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall greeted them there, and she led them inside. When they arrived at the entrance of the Great Hall, Jason, Nico, and Lou Ellen were told to wait outside while the First Years were being sorted.

And so, for almost twenty minutes the three of them waited.

"How do you think they'll sort us?" said Nico.

"There is a hat." said Lou Ellen.

"A hat?" said Nico in a disbelieving sort of voice. He rested his head in his hands as they waited in the steps to the Great Hall.

"Yes. Supposedly it sorts you into four houses depending on your personality." Lou Ellen turned to face them. "Gryffindor is for the brave and noble, Slytherin is for the cunning and ambitious, Hufflepuff is where you go if you're hard working and loyal, and Ravenclaw is for the smart and individualistic."

Jason frowned. What would they do if they got sorted into separate houses? And what if none of them were sorted into Gryffindor. The entire quest was assigned to be a bodyguard to this wizard, after all. He voiced the concern to Lou Ellen who went very silent.

"We'll continue as best we can." said Nico firmly. "We'll still have classes together and we can stick together whenever we aren't forcibly separated. And at least one of us will be sorted into Gryffindor. I mean, we're demigods. If we weren't brave, we'd be dead."

Jason smiled. So did Lou Ellen. They grabbed each others hands as a sort of reassurance, then high fived each other.

The doors to the Great Hall opened, and Professor McGonagall led them into the Great Hall.

The Great Hall was massive. Four long tables lined the floor, with students packed into each other them. Banners- red and gold, silver and green, black and yellow, and blue and bronze -were above each of the tables. And on top of a large platform, and the head of the hall, were twelve chairs where each of the teachers sat. Candles floated above them, and the ceiling swirled with stars. It looked like the night outside.

"It's bewitched," whispered Lou Ellen in Jason's ear, "It's supposed to look like the night sky, exactly."

Jason nodded and they stopped at the foot of the platform where a stool sat with a ragged and ancient looking hat.

Dumbledore, and old man, with a beard that was long and white, stood up. He was wearing a shimmering silverish robe and a tall wizards hat. He was everything you expected and old wizard to look like. His eyes, though were a piercing blue, and they seemed to cut right through Jason.

"Welcome, transfer students! Students, please make sure to make them feel welcome at Hogwarts. Now, lets get them sorted." He sat down at his chair, and toasted them with a warm smile.

Professor McGonagall stood next to the hat, and called, "Baines, Lou Ellen,"

She put on the hat, and after a few moments, the hat called out, "SLYTHERIN!" Lou Ellen walked over to the Slytherin table.

Professor McGonagall then called out, "Di ANgelo, Nico,"

Nico walked up to the hat and put it on. He was on the stool for about five minutes, his face turning various shades of pink and pale white, and wearing various expressions of annoyance to anger.

Finally, the hat called out, "GRYFFINDOR!" And Nico was sorted.

Afterwards, Jason was called with a, "Grace, Jason,"

He walked to the stool, sat down, and put on the hat.

_Hmm… Interesting… _A voice muttered in his head. Jason darted his eyes, wondering who was talking. _Three demigods in one night. I wonder what Dumbledore is up to. Oh don't worry, boy. I'm just here to sort you. _

Jason bit his lip. He didn't like people going through his head.

_People rarely do, _the hat said. _Now… Where to put you? You're not particularly smart, nor are you cunning or ambitious. Brave, yes, but not stupidly so. And loyal, oh yes. I know just where to place you. Better be, "_HUFFLEPUFF!"

The sorting hat was removed, and Jason went to go take his seat at the Hufflepuff table.

A Prefect named Hannah Abbot shook hands with him. Jason glanced at the other tables in front of him, and saw Nico sitting next to Neville again. He had taken out Mythomagic cards that must have put in the pockets of his robes.

Lou Ellen was holding a staring contest with Draco.

Jason sighed and rested his head in hands like Nico had just a few moments before. He really didn't like being separated from his teammates.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: So, ya'll should be aware that this fic set in present time. Not the 1990's. **

Chapter Nine

Eight months after defeating Gaea, Nico had come out to Hazel and his father. He hadn't planned it, but after he had gotten the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood, he had finally had enough time to mull over his incident with Eros. Nico being free to mull over his sexuality resulted in him making secret trips to public libraries in an effort to learn what he could

Jason didn't know what he had done, by accepting Nico, that afternoon at Diocletian's tomb, and the courage he had given him. He never would, if Nico had his way. He never wanted to think of that day again; the terror, shame, and humiliation he had felt when Eros forced him to reveal his feelings would haunt him till the day he died, and quite possibly afterwards.

Nico had avoided Jason for months after the incident, and hadn't mention anything of it since that day. Thankfully, Jason hadn't either.

And so, eight months after Gaea nearly destroyed the world, and after pouring through books and stories of other gay people, Nico realized how sick he was of not being true to himself. He was sick of being afraid, and sick of feeling like the world was coming down around him, and he was just plain sick in general. The anxiety, and the lying, and, on top everything else, the nightmares he still got from his ordeal in Tartarus, overwhelmed him to the point where he could scarcely force food down his throat, and he could barely sleep.

He had broken down crying at dinner with Hazel and Hades in the Underworld, and he admitted everything. Then, the most astonishing thing he could have believed would happen, happened.

His father hugged him. Hades, who was as cold and hard as diamonds, hugged Nico. It was a hug that was stiff and unpracticed, and neither of them were certain of what to do, but it was strong, and for the first time in a long time, Nico had felt secure and grounded.

Hazel had hugged Nico as well, and the next day they had talked more over breakfast.

For weeks, Nico felt euphoric. It didn't matter that his father, while indifferent to his gender preference, wanted him to forget Percy and find a nice Apollo boy instead; or that Hazel had noticed him eating more and had galvanized her attempts to shove food down his throat. He looked around and it was like he was seeing the world in color for the first time since he was a young child.

And then the Boggart happened.

It all came rushing back- the anxiety, the fear, the crushing weight of the world. He had wanted to run from Grimmauld Place, but knew that he'd be trapped outside if he even stepped a foot out of the house boundaries. So he hidden himself in the shadows of the house, focusing only on holding himself together.

He'd ventured out eventually to go to sleep, curling up with Dee20. When he'd woken he'd found himself covered with Jason's SPQR blanket, and he'd remembered the courage that Jason had given him.

That courage was what Nico was holding onto now. What he'd held onto the next day when he'd seen Molly and Lou Ellen, and acted like nothing had happened the previous night.

He had been ready to let Hazel and Hades know. No one else.

But now he was at Hogwarts. This school… No one knew him here. No one except Jason, and now possibly Lou Ellen, knew Nico's secrets. It was a fresh start.

Nico studied his wand, and ran his finger over the polished black poplar wood, wondering what Ollivander had done for his father, Hades. Running errands was such a vague expression, as Hades had many errands that needed doing. Nico should know, as he helped complete half of them.

Dumbledore stood up in front of an old podium with a carved eagle, about to make a speech. He raised his arms and said, 'To our newcomers, welcome!" His voice rang throughout the hall, and a beaming smile was on his wizened lips. "To our old hands- welcome back! There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!"

The students laughed appreciatively, and applauded as Dumbledore sat down at his chair neatly, and then threw his long beard over his shoulder so as not to get in the way of his plate, for food had appeared out of nowhere. The five long tables- four for each of the houses, and one for the staff -were groaning under the weight of the mountains of potatoes, pies, chicken, and any other food you could have imagined.

Nico felt his stomach grumble, and he piled his plate high with mashed potatoes, chicken legs, vegetables and everything else he could try. Nothing within arms length was safe. The sudden urge to eat shocked Nico to an extent. He hadn't been this eager to eat for a while. But the Great Hall was bright and cheerful, and a stark difference from the gloom and doom of Grimmauld place. For now, all of Nico's troubles, even the Boggart, were behind him.

Nico was so busy eating, that he almost didn't notice the ghosts. Almost.

He groaned and glared at the ghost next to him with a head that was partially beheaded, and an old-fashioned ruff. The ghost was studying Nico quizzically.

"Yes?" said Nico, gulping down a mouthful of potatoes.

"I'm just curious, my lord." said the ghost. "It has been a while, since one of your kind came to Hogwarts. Even longer since one of your siblings were here. The only one I remember was a young girl named Belvina Black."

"Black? Is she related to Sirius Black, by any chance?"

The ghost shrugged, his head bobbing precariously. "It is more than likely."

Nico narrowed his eyes. "What is your name?"

"Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, my Lord."

"Nico di Angelo. I would shake your hand, but I'm afraid it will only pass through you."

Sir Nicholas laughed, "No worries! I am used to it. By the way, I would like to say that I am the House Ghost, and that if you have any questions or concerns, please come to me and I will be happy to show you on your way." He tipped his hat, and floated off.

Neville, who was next to him, looked at Nico with wide eyes. "What was that about?"

"Nothing…" said Nico.

"Ah, come on," said Neville, "Nearly Headless Nick said something about your kind? What did he mean by that?"

Nico pursed his lips. Neville's eyes were shining with curiosity, and his lips jutted out in a cute pout. Nico groaned, "Fine, I'll tell you. But not here. Somewhere private."

Neville smiled, and Nico felt his stomach flip. Just a little bit.

"So, you had been telling me about Mythomagic?" said Neville, putting the other topic away for the time being.

"Oh, right!" said Nico. He gulped down another mouthful of food, and pulled out his Mythomagic cards from the pockets of his robes. The deck he had currently was his favourite- the undead deck. Arguably one of the most powerful decks you could make. Well, Nico argued that it was. Truth be told, most of the decks were fairly equally balanced.

He ran his fingers over the new cardstock. The cards were very new, having been bought only a couple months ago, right after he came out to his father and sister. He had burned his old ones after his other sister, Bianca died, and only just got back into the game.

He smiled, and began teaching Neville the rules.

…

Dinner was followed by an even more delicious dessert. Nico found some strawberry gelato he especially liked.

"Oh, gods," he groaned, after his second helping of the wonderful gelato, "This school is going to make me fat."

"I don't think you've got anything to worry about, mate." said Ron, from a few places down on the table. Nico grinned, and pushed his plate aside. He was too full, and wanted to lay his head down for a nice food coma. There was a very warm feeling spreading throughout his body, and the previous night's incident with the Boggart was all but forgotten.

When the food had started to disappear from the student's plates, and the noise level in the Great Hall had started to creep upwards, Dumbledore stood up once more. Talking ceased immediately as everyone turned to face the headmaster. Nico was drifting off, but he forced himself awake, so as not to miss anything important.

"Well, now that we are all digesting another magnificent feast, I beg a few moments of your attention for the usual start of term notice's." said Dumbledore. "First Year's, and our three transfer's, ought to know that the forest is out of bounds to students- and a few of our older students ought to know that by now too." Nico swore he saw Ron, Harry, and Hermione exchange smirks.

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me, for what he tells me is the four hundred and sixty-second time, to remind you all that magic is not permitted in corridors between, nor are a number of other things, all of which can be checked on the extensive list now fastened in Mr. Filch's office door.

"We have two changes in staffing this are very pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly Plank, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures lessons." Dumbledore motioned his hand towards the woman who had been lead Nico, Jason, and Lou Ellen to the school. "We are also delighted to introduce Professor Umbridge, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

There was a round of polite, but fairly unenthusiastic applause.

Dumbledore continued, "Tryouts for the House Quidditch teams will take place on the-"

He broke off, looking inquiringly at Professor Umbridge. As she was not much taller standing, than sitting, there was a moment when nobody knew why Dumbledore had stopped talking, but them Umbridge said "_Hem, hem,_" and it became clear that she had got to her feet and was intending to make a speech.

Dumbledore only looked taken aback for a moment, then he sat back down smartly and looked alertly at Professor Umbridge as though he desired nothing better than to listen to her talk. The other members of the staff were not as adept at hiding their surprise. Professor Mcgonagall's thin mouth was even narrower than before, and another Professor, whose name Nico didn't know yet, had raised her eyebrows clear into her flyaway hair. This seemed to be a rare event. Many of the student's were smirking.

Nico could sense a 'TP-the-teacher's-classroom' day coming up.

"Thank you, Headmaster," Professor Umbridge simpered, "for those kind words of welcome."

Her voice was high-pitched, breathy, and little-girlish, and Nico felt a powerful rush of dislike that he couldn't explain or reason for; all he knew was that he hated everything about her, from her fake voice, to the fluffy pink sweater she was wearing. She gave another cough to clear her throat and continued: "Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say!" She smiled, revealing pointed teeth that creeped Nico out. "And to see such happy little faces smiling back at me!"

Nico raised an eyebrow. None of the faces that he could see were smiling. They actually looked somewhat irritated at being addressed like they were five years old.

"I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all, and I'm sure we'll be very good friends!" Professor Umbridge cleared her throat again, but when she continued, some of the breathiness had gone from her voice. She sounded more businesslike and her words had a dull, learned-by-heart tone to them now.

"The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young wizards and witches to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you were born with may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the wizarding community must be passed down through the generations lest we lose them forever. The treasure trove of magical knowledge amassed by our ancestors must be passed down through the generations must be guarded, replenished, and polished by those who have been called to the noble profession of teaching."

Professor Umbridge paused here and made a little bow to her fellow staff members, none of whom bowed back. Nico made a little grin at the sight of the glares and deadpan faces on the teachers. Professor McGonagall looked absolutely hawk-like.

Professor gave another little "_Hem, hem,_" and went on with her speech.

"Every headmaster and headmistress of Hogwarts has brought something new to the weighty task of governing this historic school, and that is as it should be, for without progress there will be stagnation and decay. There again, progress for progress's sake must be discouraged, for our tried and tested traditions require no tinkering. A balance, then, between the old and the new, between permanence and change, between tradition and innovation…"

The speech continued on, angering Nico progressively with each word. He felt a strange urge to throw on a rainbow thong and dance to Let it Go. Fuck you and your 'ancient traditions', and your 'progress must be discouraged', he lived through Fascist Italy, and the Holocaust. His mother had been a feminist, and a single mother of two children, his half-sister, Hazel, was black and had lived in the early nineteen-forties before she died, and was brought to life again.

For her and Nico, the change that they had seen in the modern world from the times they had grown up in was stupendous.

Fuck you, he though vehemently. Change was a good thing. It was only just a few months ago that Nico had found out homosexuals could even get married now.

Nico was now actively glaring at Professor Umbridge, and trying to suppress the growing urge to open up craters and let the awful woman be devoured by skeletons.

He looked around and was further annoyed to see glassy eyed looks on students who weren't listening. Didn't they realize this speech was important?

Neville, too had a gazed looked on his face, and he was picking at some uneaten food on his plate. Nico flicked him and made him pay attention, just as the speech ended.

"...because some changes will be for the better, while others will come, in the fullness of time, to be recognized as errors of judgement. Meanwhile some old habits will be retained, and rightly so, whereas others, outmoded and outworn, must be abandoned. Let us move forward, then, to a new era of openness, effectiveness, and accountability, intent on preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited."

The last words sent chills down Nico's back, and he felt the return of growing anxiety.

Now he knew…

This is why they were sent. It wasn't just to protect some dumb student, or to protect the school from an evil wizard, that from what Nico had heard, would be lying low and was unlikely to attack the school. They were sent to protect the school from the monsters within.

Nico clutched Neville's hand that he just now realized he had grabbed. Neville seemed to have realized the seriousness of the speech and was biting his lip worriedly.

Professor Umbridge sat down, and Dumbledore clapped. The staff followed his lead, though most of them only clapped once or twice before stopping. Nico glanced at Lou Ellen whose face was as grim as Nico felt.

"Thank you, Professor Umbridge, that was most illuminating," he said, bowing to her. "Now, as I was saying, Quidditch tryouts will be held on the…" Nico was no longer listening. He had no interest in flying through the air on a broomstick. Zeus would only try to kill him once again.

"I think the Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts," said Neville in a tense voice.

"Yeah," Nico agreed. He let go of Neville's hand and coughed awkwardly. "Sorry," said Nico.

"'s fine…"

By Now, Dumbledore's speech had ended as well, and the student were filing out. Nico followed Ron and Hermione, who were showing the First Year's to their dorms.

He would need to talk to Jason and Lou Ellen as soon as he could.

…

The Gryffindor common room was hidden behind the portrait of a rather large lady in a pink dress. Nico was somewhat confused by the house's need to hide the common room, but figured it was some strange tradition. He was led toward the fifth year common room, and just in time to hear Harry arguing with another wizard his age.

"She believes the _Daily Prophet_?" said Harry, "She thinks I'm a liar and Dumbledore's an old fool?"

The other wizard looked up at him, "Yeah, something like that." He had an Irish accent.

Harry didn't say anything back to him. All he did was throw his wand onto his bedside table, pulled off his robes, stuffed them rather viciously into his trunk and pull on his pajamas. The kid looked like he had been through this before, many times. His eyes also held a look that Nico recognized; it was the same look that Nico saw in Percy's eyes, in Annabeth's eyes, in Nico's own eyes.

Nico saw that look whenever he looked into the eyes of a demigod who had fought in the Giant war, or the war against Kronos.

The boy felt a small shred of empathy for Harry. It must feel lonely. No one else at the school had those eyes.

No…

Neville had those eyes too, Nico realized. It wasn't as prominent, but it was still there.

The Irish boy had gotten up and prevented Harry from closing his bed curtains, "Look… what did happen that night when… you know, when… with Cedric Diggory and all?" The boy sounded nervous and eager at the same time. A black boy who had been bending over to retrieve a slipper went oddly still, and Nico could see he was doing a very bad job of not looking interested in the conversation.

Nico laid back in his bed and shamelessly listened in. The two weren't making any attempts to make the conversation private, and Nico was interested in this.

"What are you asking me for?" Harry retorted. "Just read the _Daily Prophet_ like your mother, why don't you? That'll tell you all you need to know."

The _Daily Prophet _sounded like something Nico should get. Know your enemy, and all.

"Don't you have a go at my mother," snapped the other wizard.

"I'll have a go at anyone who calls me a liar," said Harry.

"Don't talk to me like that!"

"I'll talk to you how I want!" The argument was quickly becoming childish, but then Harry snatched his wand from his bedside table. "If you've got a problem sharing a dormitory with me, go and ask McGonagall if you can be moved, stop your mummy worrying-"

"Leave my mother out of this, Potter!"

"What's going on?"

Ron had appeared in the doorway. His eyes were wide as they traveled from Harry, who was on his bed with his wand pointing at the Irish boy, who was standing with his fists raised.

"He's having a go at my mother!"

"What?" said Ron, "Harry wouldn't do that- we've met your mother, we like her…"

"That's before she started believing every stinking word the _Daily Prophet _writes about me!" Harry yelled at the top of his voice. By now Nico was starting to get tired of knowing nothing.

"Uh, guys?" said Nico, "What exactly are you arguing about?"

At once, everyone's faces snapped to him. The Irish wizards face contorted in a sneer.

"How do you not know?" He said, "It's been written everywhere."

"I'm from America. I don't really read your papers."

"Voldemort's back," said Harry, breathing hard. Everyone except he and Nico winced when Harry said Voldemort.

Nico nodded. "Yes, I know that."

"I saw him, and I fought him, and nobody believes me! The Ministry of Magic and _Daily Prophet_ has been taking every chance it has to make me and Dumbledore look like a couple of lunatics!"

Realization dawned on Nico. Again, he was disturbed by what the Ministry of Magic appeared to be doing. "Well, I believe you." said Nico.

"What?" said Harry, taken aback.

"I believe that you saw this Voldemort fellow, and that you fought him as well."

"You do?" said Harry.

"You have that look in your eyes. The one that shows you been through something pretty terrible."

"I believe you too, Harry." Neville chimed in. "Gran says the _Daily Prophet _hasbeen going downhill for years now." He climbed into bed, and pulled the cover's up to his chin. "My gran's always said that You-Know-Who would come back one day. She says if Dumbledore says he's back, he's back."

The Irish wizard got into bed and harshly closed the bed curtains. The black boy then also got into bed, rolled over, and went to sleep. Harry lay back onto his pillows and seemed to stare at the ceiling above him.

Nico rolled over to look at Neville who was staring fondly at his small shriveled, ink shooting cactus. Neville's face was illuminated by moonlight, and was quite possibly the most beautiful thing Nico had ever seen.

Realizing where his thoughts were leading, he blushed and pulled his bed curtains closed.

He thought about Professor Umbridge's speech, and wondered what the Ministry was trying to do here. Obviously indoctrinate the students into thinking a certain way, as they were doing with Harry, and Dumbledore with the _Daily Prophet_. Here they'd be using education as their weapon, though, and not a newspaper.

The parallels to Fascist Italy that Nico remembered, and what was going on with the Wizarding Ministry and this school unsettled, and disturbed Nico. He wondered how he would put a stop to it.

Maybe Lou Ellen would come up with something. She was fairly clever.

With that, Nico rolled over and fell asleep, dreaming about Neville's moonlight illuminated face.

**More A/N: So, I'd like to say that I'm not certain how often I'll update this next week, as I'm not certain how much time I'll have to write. I'll be fairly busy for the next few days. **


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

The Slytherin common rooms were in the dungeons of the school, and partially under the lake. A large window, under the water, created an eerie effect of green light. Lou Ellen thought it was pretty cool, if somewhat gloomy.

The furniture was beautiful- antique couches with silk embroidered pillows, stuffed leather armchairs, fur rugs- which wasn't unanticipated considering how many pure-blood families belonged to the house. A fireplace burned opposite of the window, yellow fire popping cheerfully for such a quiet room. There were some desks in another corner with a bookshelf for studying.

Lou Ellen woke up early the next morning, and spent some time in the quiet common room reading. When it was time for breakfast, she rushed to the Great Hall, along with a few other Slytherins who wanted an early start on breakfast, to find Jason and Nico. She needed to talk to them about the speech.

Nico didn't arrive until about fifteen minutes after she did, Jason almost twenty. Jason made a beeline for Nico, and Lou Ellen followed.

"Where are you going?" said Slytherin girl in her year, named Millicent Bulstrode. She was an ordinary looking girl, if a tad overweight, who some cruel people might call ugly.

"Over to my friends," said Lou Ellen, pointing to Nico and Jason.

Millicent raised her eyebrows, "Them? The kid that looks like death and blondie? They won't be your friends anymore."

"Why not?" said Lou Ellen, becoming quickly irritated. "I've known Nico for almost a year, and he's my cousin… extended, cousin."

"Doesn't matter. I had friends, too. They all abandoned me after I was sorted." Her face turned bitter. Lou Ellen sat back down. Millicent seemed like an okay person, if a bit of a follower, and Lou Ellen couldn't imagine what Millicent had done to have her friends abandon her.

"What happened? Why would they abandon you for being sorted into Slytherin?" said Lou Ellen.

"Because Slytherin is the house that You-Know-Who was in. Nearly all of the bad wizards have been in Slytherin, so no one wants to have anything to do with us."

Lou Ellen stood up again. "If you're friends abandoned you for being in Slytherin, and only that, then they weren't really your friends. Nico and Jason are my friends, and I know they won't abandon me. For anything." Before she left, she turned back to the girl. "And Millicent, if you're willing to be my friend too, I promise I won't abandon you."

And it was true. From what she could tell from Umbridge's speech they were going to be in for a hell of a fight here, only they'd need to fight with words, not weapons. They would need to take Umbridge down without battling her in combat. That sort of fight would take allies within the school, and Lou Ellen wouldn't abandon her comrades for anything.

She walked to the Gryffindor table where Nico and Jason were seated, ignoring the many curious stares she was given, ranging from distrustful, to bewildered. She sat down and Nico rolled his eyes while chewing a piece of toast.

"I know why you're here. Can it wait till after breakfast?" said Nico.

"We have classes after breakfast, and I would like to keep my grades up." said Lou Ellen.

"I'd like to keep my weight up." said Nico.

Lou Ellen smirked. "Please, I saw how much you ate last night. You'll be fine."

Nico chuckled, "Do you have any idea how many calories shadow traveling burns?"

"Where on earth are you going to be shadow traveling? The lake, which, by the way, is a ten minute walk from here."

"It's fifteen, and no. If I don't visit my sister, Hazel, at least a few times every month, she beat me with a spoon. Don't think she hasn't before."

Lou Ellen knew about Nico's sister, Hazel, from the many times he'd talked about her at Grimmauld Place, and she doubted the girl had.

"Would Hazel really beat you with a spoon?" said Lou Ellen skeptically, taking a grape from a fruit bowl.

"Yes," Said Nico and Jason simultaneously.

"Huh." Lou Ellen tried to picture the sweet, wonderful girl that Nico always described beating him with a wooden spoon, and was honestly disturbed. She instead changed the subject to Umbridge's speech last night.

"So, about last night's-"

"Oi, Snake! What're you doing here?" said one of the Gryffindors who had been staring at her as she sat down.

Neville, who was sitting next to Nico, shouted, "Shut up, McLaggen!"

"She's a Slytherin! She's not supposed to be over here."

"She's Nico's friend. They're talking."

The boy, McLaggen, stopped talking and resigned himself to glaring at Lou Ellen.

Nico smiled at Neville with lights in his eyes, that made Lou Ellen nervous for a reason she couldn't place. She ignored it in favor of continuing where she had left off. "Last night's speech, did you listen to all of it?"

"Yes, so did Jason."

She turned to Jason, "So you both know the severity of the situation?" Her voice was low.

Jason nodded, his mouth was full of eggs. He gulped, and said,"What are we going to do?",

"We wait," said Lou Ellen, "We need to find out what the Ministry is trying to do, so we wait till her class is over." She leaned in close. "Whatever you do, don't draw attention to yourself."

"What about Harry?" said Nico, in a low voice, "I guarantee you, he won't stay quiet if she pulls anything. We're supposed to be guarding him. We can't do that if he's in detention alone."

"One of us will have to get out into detention with him if that happens," said Lou Ellen,

"I'll do it," volunteered Jason,

"Are you sure?" said Nico,

"I'm sure,"

Lou Ellen turned to look at the students, who who standing up and starting to walk to their classes. She, Nico, and Jason followed them, eventually making their way to the History of Magic classroom, where Lou Ellen discovered it was taught by a ghost. She sat down next to Millicent.

"Why's the class taught by a ghost?"

Millicent shrugged, "Dunno. No one likes him, and half the school use the class as a way to nap. My guess is Dumbledore can't get him to leave the position."

Lou Ellen nodded, and tried to pay attention to the ghost, but found his voice droning, and by the end of the class, the only two who had managed to listen the entire time were Hermione, and Nico, though Nico's eyes were half glazed over.

"How did you manage to pay attention?" she asked,

"He's a ghost," was his response.

They continued on to potions. Lou Ellen thought she might like the class- she'd been brewing potions since she was old enough to stir a pot. It was a simple enough art, requiring logic and some amount of science. You didn't need to know fancy words or fancy wand waving techniques; you needed to know the causes and effects that certain ingredients would create, and even substitutions you could use if you were out of one. It was a lot like chemistry, in that way.

Lou Ellen had burned her way through several cauldrons and had obtained many magical burns, just like any veteran chemist had had their share of chemical burns.

She took a seat next to Nico, and readied her notes and supplies.

Professor Snape filed into the classroom in what could only be described as a bat-like manner. he had long black hair that reminded Lou Ellen of Nico's, only Nico's hair was clean- Professor Snape looked like it hadn't ever been washed properly.

"Settle down," said Professor Snape coldly, shutting the door to the classroom behind him. Lou Ellen wondered why he said it, there was no need to. The class had already been silent.

"Before we begin today lesson," said Professor Snape, sweeping over his desk and staring around at them all, "I think it is appropriate to remind you that next June you will be sitting in an important examination, during which you will prove how much you have learned about the composition and use of magical potions. Moronic though some of this class undoubtedly are, I expect you to scrape an Acceptable in your O.W.L., or suffer my… displeasure."

His gaze lingered on Neville, who gulped.

"After this year, many of you will cease studying with me," Snape went on. "I take only the best into my N.E.W.T. Potion class, which means that some of us will certainly be saying goodbye."

His eyes rested on Harry and his lip curled. Harry glared back. Lou Ellen had to resist rolling her eyes. This teacher seemed to have a flair for the dramatics, what with his swooping, and sweeping, and greasy speech.

"But we have another year to go before that happy moment of farewell," said Snape softly, "so whether you are intending to attempt N.E.W.T. or not, I advise all of you to concentrate your efforts upon maintaining the high-pass level I have come to expect from my O.W.L. students.

"Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes up at Ordinary Wizarding Level: the Draught of Peace, a potion to calm anxiety and soothe agitation. Be warned: If you are too heavy handed with the ingredients, you will put the drinker into an irreversible sleep, so you will need to pay close attention to what you are doing." Lou ellen straightened up, trying to pay close attention- this was a potion she hadn't mixed yet. "Snape flicked his wand, and the instructions and appeared. "You will find everything you need in the store cupboard. You have an hour and a half… Start."

Lou Ellen squinted at the blackboard, trying to make sense of what in said, but the words swam in her vision. She sighed, and squinted hard. Eventually she was able to make some sense out of the scrawling handwriting.

Try as she might, by the time Professor Snape announced that there should be a fine mist coming from their cauldron's, she was only halfway done. Her potion, was, however the correct color for the step she was currently on. Nico's potion, however, was an ugly puke color, and was giving on an even worse odor.

Snape stopped in front of her cauldron. He narrowed his eyes, "Miss Baines, how long did I give you to complete your potion?"

"An hour and a half, sir."

"Your potion is barely halfway completed, why is that?"

"I'm dyslexic, sir. So are Nico, and Jason."

He glared, "Does this dyslexia make you unable to complete your potion?"

"No," said Lou Ellen politely, "It does, however, make it difficult to read your handwriting, sir."

Snape paused, and seemed to be thinking. Then he said, "You three will report here after dinner, I wish to speak to you about this."

She nodded, and Snape swept off to inspect the other potions. He and Harry seemed to have a strong amount animosity for each other, and the professor bitterly vanished Harry's potion, which while ruined because of a few missing drops of hellebore, was still a lot better then Neville's mess of a potion which had achieved the consistency of wet cement and had to be gouged out of the cauldron so as to be put in the flask.

Lunch was next. Millicent led Lou Ellen straight to the SLytherin table. She let her, deciding to get some information on Professor Snape.

"He's okay," said Millicent when asked. "Most of the students don't like him because he can be a bit harsh..."

"What do you mean?"

Millicent shrugged, "He has a habit of ridiculing students if they're being stupid. Like Longbottom- he melts at least a cauldron a month. Snape doesn't have the patience for it."

Lou Ellen frowned, "But shouldn't he try to help Neville instead of humiliating him?"

Millicent thought for a moment, "Maybe… There have been times… I don't know…"

"There have been times what?" said Lou Ellen.

Millicent shrunk away, looking behind her at a couple of Slytherins, who were gossiping about the latest article in Witch Weekly. She seemed to be afraid of something. Lou Ellen grabbed her hand, holding it firmly, but comfortingly. Millicent seemed to be nervous about something.

"What is it?" said Lou Ellen softly, so no one else would hear.

Millicent bit her lip, a guilty look on her face. "Some of the Slytherins don't like it when you talk bad about Snape. He's a hard teacher, but he's good to the Slytherins. Kind of like McGonagall is good to the Gryffindors, and so on. And he does care, sort of."

"But…?"

"But…" Suddenly Millicent glared and took her hand away, "Why am I telling _you_ any of this? I barely know you."

Lou Ellen resisted huffing in frustration, "You don't have to tell me anything. I just want to know my way around the teachers."

"Oh," Millicent sighed heavily, "Well, all right. Snape is good to the Slytherins, so long as you're not incompetent, and you pay attention. The same with Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. But he absolutely hates anyone in Gryffindor, and most of Slytherin doesn't really care, since most Gryffindors are jerks to us anyways. But sometimes… I don't know. He can be a bit of a bully, especially to Neville, who is okay, for a Gryffindor I suppose."

Lou Ellen smiled, "Thank you, Millicent," and she took her hands again, "I really hope we can be friends,"

Millicent smiled a bit sheepishly- a look that wasn't common on the, for the most part, sullen Slytherins. "Thanks… I'd really like that, too. It's hard to find an actual friend in this house. One that doesn't want to use you."

The bright smile on Lou Ellen's face nearly broke, and she felt a wash of guilt, as that had been Lou Ellen's exact plan. Millicent was a follower, and as such had access to stores of gossip and useful tidbits of information on most of Slytherin's cliques and powerful figures. Not only that, but Millicent was a master of manipulation; she had a habit of faking subservience and fear to gain power over people, then using that power to lure secrets her victims wouldn't tell otherwise.

For a moment Lou Ellen wondered if Millicent was playing her as well.

She shook that thought from her mind and managed to keep up the friendly act. Plus, a large part of her didn't really mean Millicent any harm, and she did hope to make at least one friend in Slytherin. Preferably a girl.

Gods, she miss Katie.

"I know what you mean," said Lou Ellen, "Back at Camp, the one I went to for Battle Magic, my… house, I suppose you could call it that, wasn't trusted. I only had a couple of friends."

"Were Nico and Jason those friends?"

Lou Ellen shook her head, "No, I actually barely know them. Well, sort of."

"What do you mean?" Millicent's eyes widened, as if she sensed gossip. This was good, an exchange of gossip helped enhance a bond of trust between friends.

"Well, it's kind of a long story. Jason went to a Battle Magic school way on the other side of the country. I know him through Nico. Nico is extended family of mine, and went to the same Battle Magic school that I did. We aren't really friends, more acquaintances, but I do…" She dropped off, leaving Millicent wanting more.

"You what?" she said anxiously,

"Promise you won't tell anyone?" Lou Ellen said,

"Cross my heart and hope to die," said Millicent, crossing her heart.

Lou Ellen grinned, "Well, I have a little bit of a crush on him. More than a little bit."

"Really? But he's a Gryffindor!" said Millicent, aghast.

"Not at camp! At camp he was in the same boat as me. He wasn't trusted by most of the campers, they actually feared him. To make it worse, he was almost always gone, doing errands for his family. He didn't really know many people, and…" Lou Ellen sighed. This whole conversation was making her nostalgic, and had her thinking of the afternoons where she and Katie spent discussing boys, and the weird things they did.

"And?" said Millicent curiously,

"The things he did. He's really brave, and mysterious. And he's nice too- he hates bullies, no matter who they are. Ron-"

"Weasley?"

"Yeah, he was talking about doing something that actually was really mean, funny at the time, but mean, and Nico actually stood up to him about it."

"Really?"

"Yeah,"

Millicent shook her head, "That's stupid, noble, but stupid."

"Why is it stupid," said Lou Ellen,

Millicent sighed, as if she were talking to a child about the affairs of life, "Because it's the Golden Trio,"

"Is that their nickname, Harry, Ron and Hermione?"

She shrugged, "Some of the students call them that, so yeah, maybe. Anyways, they're sort of the top clique around here. Everyone looks up to them, and wants to be them. Being against them is sort of social suicide, unless you're in Slytherin. If you're in Slytherin, you go up to the top of the ranks. In our house at least."

Lou Ellen frowned, "What do you think of them, and I won't tell anyone, I swear to it."

Millicent bit her lip again, but she looked over her shoulder, "They… they keep to themselves, for the most part. I don't think they really trust anyone else. Harry, and Hermione are okay- I actually think Harry would make a decent Slytherin, from what I've heard of him. Ron, Ron is a bit of a prat, but he's like that to everyone, so I think that's his default setting…"

She sat back, and turned to her Shepherd's Pie, poking at it a bit. Lou Ellen turned to look at Nico, who was eating a mountain of food, making Lou Ellen wonder if he was subconsciously trying to make up for what he had deprived himself of that past year. She remembered that, from what she had seen of him at camp that past year, there was an eight month period where he had barely touched any food he was given, and a few months ago, he had been so thin… He had looked like a prisoner of war, or even a Holocaust survivor.

He had gained weight since then. A lot of weight, actually. But Lou Ellen knew that if he bared his chest, she'd still be able to count his ribs with ease…

Lou Ellen wondered, not for the first time, what had happened to him in the Giant War. And if the attraction she felt for him was genuine, or shallow and fake.

She and Millicent ended their conversation and focused on their lunch until it was time for Divination. Immediately, upon entering the room, she knew this class would be one of her least favorites. The tables were low, and instead of chairs, she had them using beanbags, or squashy armchairs. The room was stuffy, and a very unnecessary fireplace burned hot in the corner of the room.

She moved to sit next to Jason and Nico, who were seated at the table opposite of Harry and Ron, but there was already a third person there. A blond seventeen year old looking boy, gazing adoringly at Professor Trelawney, with a handsome face, perfect lips, and…

Snap out of it, she told herself.

She walked up to the boy, who had a ray of sunshine landing on his face, making his hair shine like gold. She cleared her throat, and stared him down, "Excuse me, may I sit next to my friends?"

Jason looked at her with a confused face, Nico did the same. "...Uh… Lou Ellen?"

The handsome boy smiled cheerfully, "I don't mind, pull up another beanbag."

Lou Ellen grumbled, but did what she was told. Jason and Nico were still giving her odd looks.

"What?" said Lou Ellen, pulling herself up to the table.

"There no one there." said Jason, motioning to where the boy sat, still gazing at Trelawney with what she could only describe as pride in his eyes.

"Yes there is," she argued, "Some blond surfer boy is…" Lou Ellen trailed off, her eyes widening with realization, and she slowly turned her head to the handsome boy.

The boy smirked,

"_Took you long enough,_

_It only goes to show that,_

_I am so awesome._"

Lou Ellen froze, but managed to get out, "L-lord Apollo, what are you doing here…?"

He sighed adoringly, still admiring Trelawney, "Checking up on my Great-Great-Great Granddaughter. She has the Sight, did you know?" He said this like a father would proudly show off his child.

"Oh, that's nice." said Lou Ellen, "But why why can only I see you?"

Apollo grinned, and turned to her. "Because I want you to see me."

_Yay… _

"You do?"

"Yes, because I came to give you a warning?"

Lou Ellen straightened up, "A warning, why?"

"Why does it matter?" Apollo shrugged, "It's a warning coming from the God of Prophecy, I'd take it and wouldn't question it. Plus Mr. Sunshine over there," he pointed to Nico, and laughed at his pun, "Is cute, and I like cute things." Lou Ellen felt a stab of jealousy. She really didn't want to have to compete with a God.

"What's the warning?"

He leaned in close, "Don't miss Divination, and remember your Prophecy," and before Lou Ellen could ask him anymore then that, he faded away in a golden shimmer.

Jason and Nico were still staring at her. "I'll tell you later," she said.

And class started.

…

After Divination, there was Defense Against the Dark Arts.

When they entered the classroom, Professor Umbridge was already seated at her desk, wearing the horrible pink Cardigan from the previous night, with a large black velvet robe from the night before. Lou Ellen felt a strong urge to turn both the cardigan, and the bow, to a gross shade of vomit. Her toadlike face was smiling at the with fake sweetness.

Everyone was quiet when they entered the room.

"Well, good afternoon!" she said when finally the whole class sat down.

A few people mumbled "Good afternoon," in reply.

"Tut, tut," said Professor Umbridge, "_That_ won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, professor Umbridge.' One more time, please."

"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge." They chanted back at her.

"There, now," said Professor Umbridge sweetly, "That wasn't too bad, was it? Wands away, and quills out, please."

Most of the class exchanged gloomy looks. Lou Ellen was quietly surprised. This was a defense class, wouldn't they need to learn spells? She shoved her wand in her bag, though decided to place it in there more gently in the future when she noticed how carefully Nico arranged his in his book bag, and took out her pen, pencil, and paper. Screw quills, they were inefficient and hard to write with.

Millicent, who was sitting next to her, looked at the pen with curious eyes, but didn't say anything.

Professor Umbridge waved her wand, and like in Potions, word appeared on the blackboard. Neat, _cursive_, writing. She glared at the board, _wonderful_. She raised her hand, but Professor Umbridge ignored her.

"Well now, your teaching in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented, hasn't it?" stated Professor Umbridge, turning to face the class with her hands clasped neatly in front of her. "The constant changing of teachers, many of whom do not seem to have followed any Ministry-approved curriculum, has unfortunately resulted in your being far below the standard we would expect to see from you O.W.L. year.

"You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centered, Ministry-approved course of magic this year. Copy down the following, please."

More cursive writing appeared on the blackboard.

Lou Ellen waved her hand in the air, which Umbridge still ignored.

"Millicent," she whispered frantically, "I need you to tell me what's on the board, I can't read it."

Millicent nodded, and whispered it back.

A shadow loomed over them, and Lou Ellen looked up to find Professor Umbridge standing over her, "Can I help you?" she said.

Lou Ellen blinked, "Yes, actually you can."

Professor Umbridge smiled sweetly, "With what, might I ask?"

"I'm dyslexic, and so is Jason and Nico. We can't read your handwriting."

Professor Umbridge continued smiling. "Miss-?"

"Baines," said Lou Ellen.

"Forgive me, Miss Baines, but I find it hard to believe that all three of the transfer students just _happen_ to be dyslexic. If my handwriting is hard to read, I should like you to simply try harder." she smiled a toadlike smile, then went back to the front of the room.

Lou Ellen sat in shocked silence, then decided that she would turn the stupid black bow a nice shade of vomit.

For a couple minutes, the room was filled with the sound of scratching quills on parchment. When they were finished with their copying, Professor Umbridge said, "Has everyone got a copy of _Defensive Magical Theory_ by Wilbert Slinkhard?"

The student murmured dully throughout the class.

"I think we'll try that again," said Professor Umbridge, "When i ask you a question, I should like you to reply, 'Yes, Professor Umbridge,' or 'No, Professor Umbridge.' So, has everyone got a copy of _Defensive Magical Theory_ by Wilbert Slinkhard?"

"Yes, Professor Umbridge," rang throughout the room.

"Good," said Professor Umbridge, "I should Like you to turn to page five and read chapter one, 'Basics for Beginners'. There will be no need to talk."

Professor Umbridge left the black board and settled herself in the chair behind the teachers desk, observing them all with her pouchy toad eyes. Lou Ellen glared, and snapped her fingers underneath the desk, imagining them to look like real toad eyes. When they turned yellow , with the iris horizontal, she forced down a smirk and kept a poker face on. She didn't say anything, simply turned to page five and started to try to read.

So did everyone else. If anyone noticed her toad eyes, they didn't say anything.

Reading the book was boring, and almost as bad as listening to the horrible teacher. Soon, Lou Ellen was sure she'd read the same line at least twelve times, and a quick glance at harry, and she believed he'd done the same. Millicent was sleeping with her chin propped up on an arm, Nico was making ghost rats dance up on the beams above and them away from the curious stares of whatever student happen to see them, Jason was balancing a pencil on his lip, Ron was rolling a quill between his fingers, Hermione was…

Hermione hadn't even opened her book. She was sitting stock straight, with her hand high in the air for all to see, staring straight at professor Umbridge, who was staring just as resolutely in another direction.

Several minutes passed, and lou ellen was not the only one who had noticed Hermione, who was still sitting with her hand in the air. Harry, and most of the other students in the class had noticed her as well.

Finally, Professor Umbridge could ignore her no longer.

"Do you want to ask something about the chapter, dear?" she asked Hermione, as if she had only just noticed her.

"Not about the chapter, no," said Hermione.

"Well, we're reading just now," said Professor Umbridge through her small pointed teeth. "If you have other queries we can deal with them after class."

"I've got a query about your course aims," said Hermione.

Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows.

"And your name is-?"

"Hermione Granger," said Hermione.

"Well, Miss Granger, I think the course aims are perfectly clear if you read them carefully, I can't imagine there are four people in my class with difficulty reading." She smiled sweetly at Lou Ellen, Lou ellen smiled sweetly back, causing Professor Umbridge to look taken aback for just a second.

Hermione carried on, "No, I don't have any difficulty reading, however there is nothing in your course aims about _using _defensive magic."

Lou Ellen turned to Hermione with her eyes wide. _What_? The ministry couldn't…

The other students seemed to notice this as well.

"_Using_ defensive spells?" Professor Umbridge repeated with a little laugh. "Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to _use_ a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?"

Lou Ellen glanced at Nico who was glaring at Professor Umbridge. It could be arranged. Maybe a few zombies to stir things up.

"We're not going to be using magic?" Ron blurted out loudly.

"Students raise their hands when they wish to talk in my class, Mr.-?"

"Weasley," said Ron, thrusting his hand in the air.

Professor Umbridge, smiling even more widely, turned her back on him. Harry and Hermione raised their hands too. Professor Umbridge's eyes lingered on Harry for a moment before she addressed Hermione.

"Yes, Miss Granger? You wanted to ask something else?"

"Yes," said Hermione, "Surely the whole point of Defense Against the Dark Arts is to practice defensive spells."

"Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert. Miss Granger?" said Professor Umbridge in a falsely sweet voice.

"No, but-"

"Well then, I'm afraid you're not qualified to decide what the 'whole point' of any class is. Wizards much older than you have devised a program of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk free way-"

"What use is that?" said Harry loudly, "If we're going to be in a-"

"Hand, Mr. Potter!" sanf Professor Umbridge.

Harry thrust his fist into the air. Professor Umbridge promptly turned away from him again, but now several students had their hand up to.

"And your name is?" Professor Umbridge turned to a black Gryffindor boy.

"Dean Thomas,"

"Well, Mr. Thomas?"

"Well, it's like Harry said, isn't it?" said Dean, "If we're going to be attacked, it won't be in a risk-free-"

"I repeat," said Professor Umbridge, smiling in a very irritating fashion at Dean, "Do you expect to be attacked in my classes?"

It can be arranged, repeated Lou Ellen in her head.

"No, but-"

Professor Umbridge talked over him.

"I do not wish to criticize the way things have been run in this school," she said, an unconvincing smile stretching her wide mouth, "But you have been exposed to some very irresponsible wizards in this class- not to mention," she gave a nasty little laugh, "extremely dangerous half-breeds."

_Excuse me?_ While Lou Ellen knew the insult was meant for someone else, she couldn't help but feel very offended. I'll give you an extremely dangerous half-breed, she thought, fuming.

Nico and Jason, the latter who was clutching at his desk with his knuckles starting to go white, seemed to feel the same. Jason's face had gone white, and he seemed to be trying to shut something out.

"If you mean Professor Lupin," piped up Dean angrily, "He was the best we ever-"

"_Hand_, Mr. Thomas! As I was saying- you have been introduced to spells that have been complex, inappropriate to your age group, and potentially lethal. You have been frightened into believing you are likely to meet Dark attacks every day-"

"No, we haven't," said Hermione, "We just-"

"_Your hand is not up Miss Granger_!"

hermione thrust her hand into the air; professor Umbridge turned away from her.

"It is my understanding that my predecessor not only performed illegal curses in front of you, he actually performed them _on _you-"

"Well, he turned out to be a maniac, didn't he?" said Dean Thomas hotly, "Mind you, we still learned loads-"

"_Your hand is not up, Mr. Thomas_!" trilled Professor Umbridge. "Now, it is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is all about. And your name is?" she added, staring at Parvati, whose hand had just shot up.

"Parvati Patil, and isn't there a practical bit in our Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.'s? Aren't we supposed to show that we can actually do the countercurses and things?"

Lou Ellen narrowed her eyes, and kept observing the discussion, however, she glanced at Jason again, and was surprised to see he was shaking, but with rage, not fear. She bit her lip nervously, hoping that he wouldn't start shooting of sparks.

"As long as you have studied the theory hard enough, there is no reason why you should not be able to perform the spells under carefully controlled examination conditions."

"Without ever practising them before?" said Parvati incredulously, "Are you telling us the first time we ever actually perform these spells will be during our exam?"

"I repeat, as long as you have studied the theory long enough-"

"And what use is theory going to be in the real world?" said Harry loudly, his fist having been raised in the air again.

Professor Umbridge looked up.

"This is school, Mr. Potter, not the real world." she said softly.

"So we're not supposed to be prepared for what's out there?"

"There is nothing out there, Mr. Potter."

"Oh yeah?" said Harry.

"Who do you imagine wants to attack children like yourselves?"

"Hmm, let's think… maybe _Lord Voldemort_?"

The reaction would have been hilarious, had not been for the environment. Ron gasped; another girl gave a little scream; Neville slipped sideways off his chair. Professor Umbridge, however, did not flinch. She was staring at Harry with a grimly satisfied expression on her face. It hit Lou ellen that this had been her plan all along.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter." said Professor Umbridge, "Now, let's make a few things quite plain."

She stood up, and leaned toward them, her stubby fingered hands splayed on her desk.

"You have been told that a certain Dark wizard has returned from the dead-"

"He wasn't dead," said Harry angrily, "But yeah, he's returned!"

"_Mr. Potter, you have already lost your house ten points, do not make things worse for yourself_," said Professor Umbridge in one breath without looking at Harry, "As I was saying, you have been informed that a certain Dark wizard is at large once agin. _This is a lie_."

"It is NOT a lie! I saw him, I fought him!"

"Detention, Mr. Potter!" said Professor Umbridge triumphantly, "Tomorrow evening. Five o'clock. My office. I repeat, this is a _lie-_"

"You're a _fool_."

Lou Ellen couldn't hold back a gasp. Jason had stood up. He was shaking, and unbuttoning his shirt. The students in the classroom were whispering. Professor Umbridge glared at Jason.

"Mr.-?"

"Grace. Jason Grace," he said without looking up at her, only focusing on unbuttoning his shirt with his shaking hands.

"Mr. Grace, I should ask that you stop undressing yourself in my classroom." she said with a wide fake smile.

"No." said Jason.

He finished unbuttoning it, and slipped the shirt off his shoulders. Several students gasped in shock, Hermione covered her mouth with her hands. Jason turned around, and Lou Ellen was able to see what the fuss was about.

His entire stomach was covered by a jagged scar.

"I don't know who this _Lord Voldemort _is, or You-Know-Who, if that's what you insist on calling him. I'm just an ignorant American who doesn't pay a lick of attention to British Wizarding news, but I do know that while on vacation to Athens last summer, I was attacked by Giants, me and my family. They didn't care that I was a child, or that my cousins were either. They just wanted to kill us.

"You aren't safe because you're children. If anything that makes you even more vulnerable! Have any of you read Hansel and Gretel? No one? Well, just remember, wolves don't attack the healthy caribou, they go after the sick, weak, and young. Theories won't help you in the real world; a martial artist can read for years on the theory of combat, but unless he develops muscle memory and strength, those theories do him no good."

Jason put his shirt back on and sat down, maintaining a staring contest with Professor Umbridge the entire time.

She had stopped smiling, and the entire class was silent. Harry was just looking as Jason with something of respect in his eyes.

"Mr. Grace, while your story is… inspiring to us all, I must ask that you attend detention with Mr. Potter tonight at five o'clock, my office. Do not be late, and do not interrupt my class again."

Harry looked like he was about to jump out of his seat, but Hermione stopped him.

Class continued as usual.

**A/N Whew. That was a bit longer than I intended it to be. This will also, almost definitely, be AU from Blood of Olympus. Just thought I would announce that. **


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Dinner in the Great hall was the most pleasant experience Jason had ever had. He found out the gossip vine at Hogwarts was just as able as the one at Camp Jupiter, perhaps more so. Whispers were everywhere in the halls, going silent when they saw him, and shooting him pitying glances. Hannah Abbott, a fellow Hufflepuff in his year walked him through the halls and to the Great Hall so he could eat, bravely shielding him from the looks and hushed conversations.

"He says he fought giants…" he heard from a short First Year.

"I heard he was hit by lightning while battling a giant Chief…"

"Cho Chang say that his scar looks like it was treated using muggle methods…"

"Come off it…"

"That barbaric…"

"Pur-_lease_…"

"I don't get it," said Jason in a shaking voice, trying to steady his hands (he was still so angry from Umbridge's lesson that he was surprised he was shooting sparks whenever he touched metal), "Why are they so fascinated by the fact that I have a scar."

Hannah looked at another Hufflepuff in his year named Susan Bones, who said in a quiet voice, "Well, wasn't it magically healed?"

"Not really, we ran out of supplies halfway through the ba-" he stopped himself, nearly calling it for what it was, "We had stuff to treat wounds, but we weren't expecting to be attacked like we were, so we ended up with only enough to get me to a muggle hospital. We weren't anywhere near a wizarding hospital."

"Oh…" Susan,

"Jason, what you said in Defense class, why did you say it?" said Hannah.

Jason shrugged, and poured himself a bowl of black bean soup. Piper had given him a taste for it; she loved to eat the hearty soup. "It had to be said. She's trying to teach you that you don't have anything to be afraid of out 'there', because supposedly, whoever this You-Know-Who guy is, isn't back. But that isn't the truth. Even if their right, and he is dead, he'll just be replaced with another power crazy bad guy. There will always be another war on the horizon, and the real world won't be 'safe, and risk-free'." He spooned some of the soup into his mouth, letting the taste of the spices calm him down, and thinking about Piper's beautiful kaleidoscope eyes. Right now, he missed her more than ever. Maybe he'd IM her later on. They hadn't talked for months.

"The truth is," he continued, "I'm worried that the ministry _doesn't_ want you to be trained in defense, which is odd, and makes me wonder if You-Know-Who _is _back and has contacts within the ministry."

Susan Bones gasped, along with Hannah Abbott. "Do you think so?" she said.

""I don't know," said Jason, "I don't know enough about the way your country runs things to make a fair observation. But those are my suspicions." He stirred his bowl, "I'm going to talk to Lou Ellen later. From what I hear, a lot of the Slytherin students have family high up in the Ministry, yes?"

Susan and Hannah nodded, "Yeah, but I doubt you'll get their help. They're all mean, and they look down on Hufflepuffs."

"They call us stupid," said Hannah softly.

"Lou Ellen is my friend," he insisted. "I'll talk to her, maybe she can ask a friend in that house to talk to their parent about not being educated in Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Susan shook her head, "I don't doubt that they already are, after all, they have traits of being cunning and resourceful. But if the Minister is in on it, there is nothing their parents will be able to do."

Jason grinned, thinking about his and his friends godly parents and their anger. "I wouldn't be too sure, parents are pretty powerful when they are angry."

…

After dinner, Jason went with Nico and Lou Ellen to the potions classroom to talk to Snape, like they were told. He met them at the door, and led them in.

His black eyes were cold and beetle-like, and his skin was pallid. He almost reminded Jason of Nico, except Nico's hair was actually clean.

"Good evening," he said in a greasy voice. "Now, as I am in the Order, and I know the circumstances of why you are really here, I know that you three are no ordinary wizards." He went behind his desk and leaned over. "I am no fool. I don't believe that all three of you have dyslexia by some sort of coincidence. So I am led to believe that the magic you are in possession of is tied with your disorder."

Nico opened his mouth to talk. Snape held up a hand to stop him.

"Don't speak, and don't tell me what you are. I could care less, I merely wish for it to NOT disrupt my classroom, or my teaching. And so," he folded his hands, and glared up at them. "That leads us to figure out what we do about this predicament. As much as I resent it, you are students in my class, and your grades reflect my teachings. The potions that you turned in, while done… adequately, for being unable to properly read my instructions, are in no way adequate to gain even an A in your O.W.L. testing.

"This will reflect poorly on me, and my expectations of my students. Lou Ellen, from the quality of your potion, while half done, I am led to believe you could possibly even make it into my N.E.W.T. classes, were you to become a regular student at this school." He gazed at all three of them, "I wish to help you all, however, I will need to understand the reason for your ailment. Normally, a wizard with a reading ailment can go to St Mungos, and have it easily treated. However, if your ailment is as I fear it is, and tied to your magic, the only way to fix it would be to cut off your ability to use your magic."

"That's not an option," said Nico hotly.

Snape glared at him, "That's not an option, _sir_. And no, it isn't." He leaned toward them, "And so, in order to help you succeed in my class, I will need to understand the cause of your ailment. I believe you know it already."

Nico, Jason, and Lou Ellen looked at each other, and nodded. Snape was in the Order, so he should be able to be trusted. "We're demigods," they all said.

Snape blinked, "Demigods?" He repeated, then shook his head. "What is Dumbledore thinking… How…?"

Nico shrugged, "I'm a son of Hades, Jason is a son of Jupiter, and Lo Ellen is a daughter of Hecate."

Snape frowned, then said, "That doesn't explain the dyslexia,"

"Our brains are hardwired for Ancient Greek. The letters for other languages, except French for child of Aphrodite, confuse us."

"Actually, I'm hardwired for Latin."

"Oh right," said Nico, "Jason is actually Roman, not Greek, so he's able to naturally read Latin."

Snape gave them a deadpan look. "Give me your books," he said.

The three of them complied, and began unloading their books from their schoolbags. Snape took his wand, and began tapping the books while muttering.

"What are you doing?" said Nico.

"I am putting a translation spell on your books. It will allow the reader to read the books in whatever language they feel most comfortable in, so long as they know the language it was originally written in. I'll be doing the same with my blackboard. I would cast it on you, but it must be cast onto actual written material."

"Oh," said Nico, "That's handy, can you teach it to us?"

"No," said Snape, "However, as it is a charm, I suggest you bother Professor Flitwick with such requests."

Nico nodded glumly, and within a few minutes, all of their books had been charmed.

"Do you have any other books with you right now?" said Snape when he had finished.

Nico coughed, and took out his book on wizarding legends, "Just this one, but you don't have to-"

Snape snatched it, and cast the translation spell on it, before shoving it back. "Leave," he then said, and Jason, Nico, and Lou Ellen walked quickly out of the classroom.

They walked back upstairs in silence, just enjoying the peace of the Hogwarts hallways. They headed for the grounds, and sat down in the grass and gazing down at the dark forest.

"I guess Millicent was right," said Lou Ellen in quiet astonishment.

"What?" said Jason.

"He does care, to an extent."

"What do you mean?" said Nico, pulling his legends book from his bag, and opening it to where he had left off.

"Your book, and the books from subjects other than Potions. He didn't have to charm them, but he did." said Lou Ellen, picking a blade of grass and twirling it in her fingers.

"We should find Harry, Hermione and Ron," said Jason, "We are here to do a job."

"They're in the Gryffindor Common room," said Nico, "I heard them heading there before we left for the Potions classroom."

"Okay," said Jason, "We should work on homework. We have those dream diaries from Divination."

Lou Ellen chuckled, "We should write down what we actually dream about and see if it scars her for life."

Nico shook his head, "That's mean," but he was smiling.

They took out their pens and books, and began working on their homework. Jason was pleased to see the English lettering smoothly turn to Ancient Greek symbols when he opened his Divination book.

...

The Hufflepuff common room was apparently near the kitchens, and about halfway underneath the ground. It had circular windows that you could look out of, and see rippling grass and bright yellow dandelions. There were overstuffed armchairs and sofas that were upholstered in yellow and black. It was cozy, and homey, and very sheltered. Last night had actually been the best night of sleep Jason had experienced in ages.

His collapsed in front of the fireplace in the common room, still shaking, but now he wasn't shaking from anger. He had, over the past year, successfully shoved down all the memories from _that_ battle, and forgotten it. He had carefully avoided looking down at his torso, avoiding mirrors when he was undressed, stopped thing about everything that had to do with Athens or hospitals…

And now it was all rushing back.

He curled up in one of the overstuffed armchairs, and tried not to think. Most of the other Hufflepuffs ignored him, probably unsure of what to do, but Hannah sat down on the armrest and curled up with him. He melted into her, something about her reminding him of Piper. The shaking subsided.

"You gonna be okay?" she said.

"Yeah… I just… I've kept myself from thinking about that day for so long." he detached himself from her. He nodded gratefully at her, and she smiled back, making Jason pause for a moment. In the looks department, Hannah was plain. She didn't have magical hair or kaleidoscope eyes like Piper, but her kind and infectious smile lit up her face. Jason couldn't help but smile back, and feel a flutter in his heart that he hadn't felt in a long time.

Hannah walked off towards the girls dormitory, and Jason eventually got up and walked to his. He pulled the curtains shut, and went to bed early.

...

The next day they had Double Charms, and Double Transfiguration. Both Flitwick and McGonagall spent the first fifteen minutes of class discussing the importance of their O.W.L.'s.

They spent more than an hour in Charms reviewing a summoning charm, which Nico and Jason desperately tried to learn, while Lou Ellen figured it out in fifteen minutes. She smiled smugly, but still helped Jason and Nico out.

Professor Flitwick rounded off the lesson with more homework than Jason could ever remember having. Transfiguration was, if possible, worse.

"You cannot pass an O.W.L.," said Professor McGonagall grimly, "Without serious application, practice, and study. I see no reason why everybody in this class should not achieve an O.W.L. in Transfiguration as long as they put in the work." Neville made a sad little disbelieving noise, "Yes, you too, Longbottom," said Professor McGonagall. "There's nothing wrong with your work except lack of confidence. So… today we are starting Vanishing Spells. These are easier than conjuring spells, which you would not usually attempt until N.E.W.T. level, but they are still among the most difficult magic you will be tested on in you O.W.L."

She was quite right. Jason, trying as hard as he could, could not vanish the snail he was practicing on. Nico's had paled considerably, though, and was almost translucent. Lou Ellen, had vanished hers a half hour into the class, along with Hermione who had done it on the third try. However, instead of joining together in talented witch splendor, they shot each other dirty looks, as if the other were trying to steal to throne for the top of the class.

"She's going down, I tell you," Lou Ellen said on their way to Care of Magical Creatures, "Mrs.-I-Can-Vanish-My-Snail-On-The-Third-Attempt, ohhh…" Jason tried to remind her that it wasn't a competition, and that they were supposed to be protecting them, not crushing them.

"We're supposed to be protecting Harry," she said matter of factly. Jason tried to argue, but Nico shot him a look that said it was better to let her win this one, and he left Lou Ellen to her grumbling.

When Lou Ellen was safely out of earshot, Nico said, "Was Piper ever like that?"

Jason shrugged, "She got competitive with Drew every now and again."

"Ah…" Nico smirked, "Makes me glad I'm gay, for once."

Jason raised his eyebrows, surprised at the openness. Just last year, when confronted by Eros about his crush on Percy, Nico had made cracks in the ground and almost raised skeletons from the Underworld. Now…

"What?" said Nico when he saw Jason looking at him curiously.

"Nothing, just surprised at the openness. It's a good surprised, though."

"Oh," Nico looked down, frowning. "It wasn't like that a couple months ago,"

"Yeah, I saw. You were scaring everyone, actually. Frank told me that Hazel actually-" he stopped, unsure if he should be divulging that information.

"What?"

Well, too late now, "Apparently Hazel broke down one time, a few months ago. She was crying, and worried you were trying to kill yourself. And… well, she wasn't the only one. Everyone was scared."

So was he. He wasn't able to see Nico as often as he would have liked to; Nico was always traveling, and Jason was busy training Frank for Praetorship, their schedules never matched up. But Nico wasn't able to hide how emaciated he had gotten, even when Jason saw him in passing maybe once a month.

More and more, as that year had passed on, Nico had begun to look like the skeletons he raised, and his eyes became lifeless, and his skin wasn't just white anymore, but pallid and taut across his cheekbones.

Reyna, too, had been worried sick. One the mission she went on with Nico and Coach hedge, they had bonded, and became almost friends. She wanted to pull him aside and talk to him, but was never able to catch him. Jason wondered if Nico had been avoiding them.

"I know," said Nico, "But…"

"But what?" said Jason a little more harshly than he wanted to, but at the time he didn't care. Everything was coming to the surface- the fear he felt for Nico, the anger he felt on Reyna's behalf, and the regret for not keeping up with Nico after the war.

"I'm sorry," said Nico and stopped walking to look at Jason properly, "I was in a bad way, and at the time... I didn't realize the effect it was having on everyone, and I didn't think they cared enough to notice."

"Nico, we fought together. We saved each other's lives- all of us. Reyna, Leo, Hazel, Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Coach Hedge, and me and you. We all fought to save each other's lives in that war, of course we cared, of course we noticed." Jason was shaking again, and he felt close to tears.

Nico hung his head, "I'm sorry," he said, his voice breaking a little. Jason hugged him.

"I'm sorry too."

"Hey, guys! Are you coming, or what?" called Lou Ellen from the bottom of the hill to Care of Magical Creatures.

Jason wiped his eyes, and Nico did the same. "Coming," he said loudly.

Care of Magical Creatures passed. They examined, and took sketches of, a creature called a bowtruckle that skittered away from Nico every time he tried to touch it. It did seem to like Lou Ellen, so she held it while Jason took a sketch of it. Nico labeled the sketch.

Harry got into a very loud discussion with Malfoy about a teacher named Hagrid.

Next was Herbology. On the way there, they ran into Luna once again. She told Harry that her father believed Voldemort was back, to which Ernie Macmillan, boy in Hufflepuff and Jason's year, proudly agreed with her.

"My family has always stood behind Dumbledore," he said, puffing out his chest.

"Er… thanks very much, Ernie…" said Harry, seemingly wanting to get away from the attention.

Herbology it seemed, for Nico at least, was a complete and utter disaster. The plants seemed to have a want for vengeance against Nico, curling away from him, and, on one instance, dying the moment he touched it. Professor Sprout finally had enough, and assigned him to stocking dragon dung, which was her preferred brand of fertilizer. Nico grumbled about it, but seemed pleased to get out of the greenhouse.

By the time dinner rolled around, Jason was starving. He bolted to dinner, and scarfed down what he could before heading up to Umbridge's office with Harry.

"Come in," rang a sickeningly sweet voice when Harry rapped on his office door. They walked in, and Harry gave a small gasp of shock. Jason didn't blame him. Every surface of the room had been draped with lace covers and cloths. There were vases full of dried flowers, each with it's own doily that it sat on, and on one of the walls was a collection of ornamental plates, each decorated with a large kitten wearing a different bow around it's neck. Jason and Harry stared at the, transfixed, until Professor Umbridge spoke again.

"Good evening , Mr. Grace."

They started and looked around. They had not noticed her at first because she was wearing an awful flowered set of robes that blended only too well with the tablecloth on the desk in front of her.

"Evening," said Harry stiffly. Jason didn't say anything. Professor Umbridge smiled at him until he spat out, "Evening," as well.

He could not describe the amount of pure hatred he felt towards this woman.

"Well, sit down," she said, pointing towards a small table draped in lace beside which she had drawn up a straight-backed chair. Two pieces of blank parchment lay on the table, apparently waiting for them.

"Now, Mr. Grace, I was almost about to let you go," said Professor Umbridge with a wide, toad-like smile. Jason noticed her eyes actually looked like a toad's and wondered if Lou Ellen had something to do with it. He noticed Harry was looking at them too. Jason elected not to mention it to her. It would wear off, after all. Eventually.

"I felt, that maybe we could have a discussion about what is appropriate, and what is not appropriate, to do in my class, and you could leave with a warning. After all, your records show that you've never had a problem with discipline." She batted her toad eyes, and smiled full of fake sweetness, "But, unfortunately, I could find no record of any giant attacks in Athens. In fact, there have been no giant tribes living in Greece, since 1862." She handed them each a long black quill, with an unusually sharp point at the end.

"I hope you will both learn from this punishment, not to spread evil, nasty, attention-seeking stories, Mr. Potter, and Mr. Grace." She walked back to her desk, and shuffled through some papers. "I want you both to write, _I will not tell lies_."

"How many times?" Jason asked, not really understanding the punishment. At Camp Jupiter, had a cadet been mouthy and disrespectful, he would have made them run laps, or do push-ups, till they collapsed of exhaustion. He would have, of course, sent them to med bay afterwards and made sure they were hydrated, but the punishment wasn't supposed to be easy.

"Oh, as long as it takes for the message to _sink in_." she said, smiling nastily.

Jason picked up the quill suspiciously. Then noticed there wasn't any ink. Harry saw this too.

"You haven't given us any ink," said Harry.

"Oh, you won't need ink," said Professor Umbridge, with the merest suggestion of a laugh in her voice.

Jason put the quill on the paper and wrote, _I must not tell lies._

He just barely restrained himself from gasping with pain. The words had appeared on the parchment in what appeared to be shining red ink, but when Jason looked at the back of his right hand, he saw the words cut into his hand, as if with an Exacto Knife- and yet, the words healed over again, leaving the place smooth where it had been. Slightly redder, but quite smooth.

Harry, however, had not been able to hold back the gasp. Professor Umbridge smiled wide and cruel, and said, "Yes?"

"Nothing," said Harry quietly.

They continued writing. Again, and again, Jason wrote those words. Soon he realized that he wasn't writing with ink, but with his own blood. Day turned into night, and Jason kept quietly scratching away at the parchment. Neither he, nor Harry, asked if they could stop.

The night outside the window was quite dark. Jason didn't slow down. His hand throbbed painfully, but he was a son of Jupiter, for crying out loud. He would not bend, not to this vile hag…

"Come here," she said, after what seemed like hours.

He and Harry stood up. The back of his right hand looked as if he had scrubbed it with sandpaper.

"Hand," she said.

Jason and Harry extended the appendage, and she studied the hands with her stubby fingers. "Tut, tut, I don't seem to have made an impression yet. It'll have to do, I suppose." she turned to Harry, "But we'll probably be seeing one another again, won't we?" She smiled widely, her pouchy toad eyes crinkling, "You may go."

They left her office without a word. The school was empty, and it had to be past midnight. They walked slowly down the corridor, but when they were both certain the hag wouldn't hear them, they broke off in a run towards their respective dorms.

…

Jason collapsed in bed. He hadn't had time to do any homework.

His right hand burned, from the black quill Umbridge had made them use. He knew it was probably Dark magic, and decided to talk to Lou Ellen about it in the morning. She seemed to know quite a bit about Dark magic.

He curled up on his side, and covered himself in his SPQR blanket while clutching his stuffed eagle. He fell asleep staring at an old picture of him, Leo, and Piper at Camp Half-Blood.


	12. Chapter 12: Interlude

Chapter 12: Interlude

It was the very early hours of the morning when Jason snuck into the forbidden forest. The sun had just woken up, birds were singing in the tangled tops of the gargantuan trees, and the mossy green floor of the forest was still damp with the early morning dew. He breathed in, enjoying the calming effect of the calming redolence of daybreak.

There was a heavy golden coin in his right hand, and a mirror in the other. Jason positioned the mirror in the rays of the sun so as to get the best rainbow effect against on of the forest's massive trees, and threw the coin at the rainbow.

"_Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Piper McLean_."

As Jason said the prayer, a hazy view of Piper reading a book in her bed. Jason saw the giant pink teddy bear he'd won her sitting on the edge of a large, stained wood cedar chest. A happy feeling settled in him at that information. He cleared his throat, and Piper jumped, looking around and finally settling her gaze on the rainbow image of Jason.

"Jason?" she said, confused. Then she laughed. "What are you doing?"

"IMing you. I… I wanted to talk."

"About what?" said Piper, then her face grew concerned. "Are you okay? Is it-"

"It's nothing," said Jason, "I just… I missed you, that's all."

Piper's face grew sad, her kaleidoscope eyes growing downcast. "I miss you too," she said with a heavy voice, "By the way, my dad convinced me to come to Hollywood for the school year. I went to Camp Jupiter the day after I arrived. They said you went on a year long mission, to _England_?"

There was an awkward silence. Piper's voice was accusing, hurt, and curious all at the same time.

"Well?" she said.

"I did," said Jason after a moment of tense silence, "Nico needed my help. He couldn't find any other volunteers."

"So you just left? Jason I-" she stopped suddenly, glaring to the side.

"What?"

"Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?" she said.

"What do you mean?"

Piper's glare, beautiful and deadly, turned to him. He shrank back, "You said goodbye to everyone you knew at Camp Jupiter. Reyna told me. She thought you had told me you were leaving as well."

"I'm sorry." said Jason, not certain of what to say to her.

She sighed in return, leaning back in her bed. She closed her book, marking it with a beautiful cloth bookmark, running her fingers over the hard case. "No, I know why you didn't. I was angry, still am, but I understand why. We haven't talked since the break up, after all. Why should you tell me anything, when I don't tell you anything in return?"

"It doesn't make it right," said Jason.

"No, it doesn't. So let's make it right, starting now. I should have told you I was coming to California when Dad convinced me."

Jason breathed in a little quickly, "When did you know you were coming?"

"Months ago. I had to get registered in the school systems, after all. And the quest?"

"About two days before we left, but we left about a month ago."

"Oh…" she laughed nervously, "Does that make me worse?"

"No," said Jason, smiling.

"Oh? And why is that, Superman?"

"Because I was going on a quest into a land I know nothing about. I could have been killed on the first day."

"I would have been outside of camp borders. The same risk applied to me."

"We need to stop arguing about this, or we'll never stop."

"Yeah,"

"Yeah,"

They stayed like that for a few moments, smiling sadly at each other. Piper was the first to speak.

"How are you holding up? Is your chest bothering you? I know it did before we separated."

Jason crossed his legs on the soft dirt ground. "It's okay. It hasn't ached for a few months now. Only…"

"What?" Piper sat up on her bed, worried. "Jason, what's wrong? Just talk to me, please."

Jason remembered how much he had wanted Nico to just talk to him after the Boggart. He looked up at Piper's soft, choppy, dark hair that framed her face in the most perfect way; her strong sinewy muscles that you rarely saw on a daughter of Aphrodite; and her mesmerizing eyes that seemed to constantly change colors. It was all now twisted in a face full of worry and sadness that he never wanted to see on Piper again. He gulped, preparing himself to speak.

"I showed them, not just Nico and Lou Ellen, but everyone. The mission, the woman we were sent here about, she was sent here by the wizarding Ministry because of reasons we don't know. She's supposed to teach these kids they don't need to defend themselves, that being kids will somehow magically protect them from whatever's out there trying to kill them. I… I couldn't… I had to _sit there_, and listen to this woman tell them _lies_ and…"

Jason's hands were shaking, and images of the Giant War were flashing through his mind. He wondered if they should bother him as much as they did, after all, surely Annabeth and Percy went through worse in Tartarus. Nico, as well. Jason was just another Demigod who got hurt on a quest. It happened all of the time.

"Jason…" Piper sounded close to tears, and when Jason looked up, he could see that she had reached out her hand, and was only inches away from the rainbow screen. "It's okay, Jason."

Her voice was soothing, but somehow he knew that it wasn't charmspeak he was hearing. There was a time when he had wondered it, feared it, suspected that perhaps this beautiful woman had unknowingly bewitched Jason into loving her, but now that he had been given time to reflect, he knew that it couldn't be further from the truth.

Piper's voice was soothing, because Jason loved her. It was as simple as that. No trickery, no kind of witchcraft, no illusion, could imitate that sort of love. It was impossible.

"Thanks, Wonder Woman."

Piper laughed, full bellied this time, and full of heart. "No problem, Superman."

The tension was gone now. Piper laid back down, and Jason started doodling in the dirt.

"What time is it over there?" said Jason, unsure of the time difference.

"A little after nine. I was reading a bit before I went to bed. We're reading Shakespeare in class, I wanted to get a headstart."

"And the dyslexia?"

"My copy is in French. I told my teacher that it was to help me learn French, as my dad will be filming a movie in France sometime next year, and I wanted to come with him." she giggled, "It's half true. Dad is filming some sort of rom/com in France next year, and I'm coming with him, but I don't need to learn French."

"'Cause you know it naturally." Jason grinned. "How're things going with you and… what was his name again?"

She groaned, but laughed a little bit, "Tyler, and we broke up. He didn't exactly appreciate all the times I had to sneak away on dates to kill monsters. By the way, how have the monsters been so far on your end?"

Jason shrugged, "I haven't seen any. At least, not the demigod kind."

Piper's eyebrows went up. "That is really unusual. Two kids of the Big Three, I mean, that alone spells trouble. Add in another demigod, minor as her mother might be, and you're asking for trouble. Do you have any sort of idea why that might be?"

To be honest, Jason didn't have a clue. Yet, he thought of the Fidelius Charm on Grimmauld Place, and wondered if Hogwarts had the same sort of protection. "I don't know, but these wizards have strange ways of protecting their homes. Grimmauld Place, that's where we stayed at before the school year started, had some sort of spell on it to make it impossible to see, even if you could see through the mist. It makes me wonder if Hogwarts has the same protection."

"Oh," Piper's face was worried again, making Jason want to stroke it, coaxing the pain away. More than anything, he wanted to feel her soft skin beneath his hands and feel the muscles of her smile as she laughed.

"I'll be okay," said Jason, trying to soothe her now. It seemed to work, as she gave him a hesitant grin. "I'm Superman, remember?" This time, she beamed.

"Well, then I'll be Wonder Woman."

"What about Leo?"

"He can be Batman, with all of those gadgets."

Jason guffawed, "Don't tell him that, he'll never let it go."

"I have no plans." she said. Then she sat up, "I should go to bed. I've got to get up early tomorrow for school."

"Yeah. I need to go get breakfast." \

"Good bye, take care of yourself."

"Bye, you too."

"And Jason,-" Piper cut herself off. Three unspoken words floated between them. "I miss you."

"Yeah, I miss you too," said Jason.

_I love you_.

**A/N Yay! Piper and Jason's IM chat! I didn't forget that Jason wanted to IM her. Or that he didn't tell her he was leaving. **

**I'm thinking of having them get back together. Or maybe they'll stay apart and Jason will move on with another girl. What do you guys think?**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

The morning after Jason's detention with Professor Umbridge, Nico was having a quiet breakfast. But just after the thirty minute mark past, and his mouth was full of jam and toast, he was plucked from his stool by Jason, and steered him towards the SLytherin table where Lou Ellen was.

"Wha eh 'adeh are ya oo'eh?" said Nico through his full mouth.

"What?" said Jason.

Nico gulped, "I said, 'what in Hades are you doing?"

"The three of us need to have a meeting."

"I hardly think that either you or I will be welcome at the Slytherin table." said Nico.

"If we aren't, I doubt they'll say anything." said Jason.

"And why not?"

Jason shrugged, "Because we're only an irritance. And the only thing they'd gain by evicting us is Lou Ellen's scorn, who, knowing her, I'm sure has gained a foothold in the Slytherin house by now. And in any case, we won't be sitting over there"

His words were true enough. Lou Ellen, at that moment, was surrounded by a gang of girls. They were all giggling, and fawning over a few magazines. Jason walked up to her, tapping her on the shoulder while bending over to whisper in her ear. Her eyes widened, and she turned to look at him, grabbing his left hand to inspect it. She shot up, grabbing a few slices of toast to put them on a napkin, then started to leave the Great Hall with Jason. Nico ran to catch up with them.

"Gods, I didn't think she would be, in any shape or form, _that _bad." said Lou Ellen in shock, "A _Blood Quill_? That's absolutely _medieval_."

"Is it illegal?"

Lou Ellen groaned, and shook her head. "No. It's looked down on by most sane people, however." she grinned in an evil way that made Nico nervous. "If people were to find out…"

"Who?"

Lou Ellen's lips got tight. "I don't know…"

"What about a teacher? We could go to Professor Sprout, or McGonagall" suggested Jason helpfully.

Nico made a face when Jason suggested Sprout. He still remembered being made to stock dung after the entirety of the plant life in the greenhouses sprang to life and made a genuine effort to kill him, or at the very least get him kicked out of herbology. Later, Nico would go to Professor McGonagall and see if there was a way to drop the class. It would do, to not further incite his stepmother's rage by dwelling near greenhouses.

"What would they be able to do? Umbridge is protected by the Minister of Magic, whom she most likely has under her stubby toad thumbs." said Lou Ellen crossly. "However… we could try a newspaper."

"Like the _Daily Prophet_?" said Nico.

"Yes!" said Lou Ellen, "I don't know anyone who has contacts in the _Daily Prophet,_ however."

Nico turned to her, "We'll have to ask around. And… wait, do we have any proof?"

Their bright faces fell. Jason and Lou Ellen turned to each other, and Lou Ellen inspected Jason's left hand again. "Your hand is entirely smooth…" she said with a heavy sigh, "Unless we were able to get a hold of the quill, and had scratches or a scar to match up with the last words the quill wrote, that Umbridge woman will get off. No one will believe the word of a student against a professor."

Jason grit his teeth, and held his hand to his chest. "It still burns," he said.

"It'll burn for a long time depending on how long she had you writing." said Lou Ellen.

"We were writing for hours," said Jason. Lou Ellen winced. Nico turned to her.

"Not good?"

Lou Ellen shook her head. "Do you want any ambrosia?" Jason shook his head.

"We should save it. If we waste it on cuts and bruises, we won't have any when we really need it."

"Jason, this is like a chemical burn. It's going to last a while."

Jason just continued shaking his head. Nico wondered if there was a different reason Jason wouldn't take any. Lou Ellen scoffed at him.

"Fine, but I'm still going to make you something for it. Blood Quills were invented to make torture legal. The pain is supposed to last." she turned around, storming off towards the direction Nico assumed the Slytherin common room was. He turned to Jason.

"Well, I do not want to get her angry." said Nico, partially to himself.

Jason let out a weak chuckle, "Yeah,"

"You okay?" he asked. Jason nodded.

"I'm fine, just…" he turned his head both ways, making sure they were alone. "She gets inside you, Umbridge. Last night, it was the first night since… that last quest, that I was truly afraid."

"Don't worry," said Nico, "We'll band together, the entire school. It isn't just us that isn't being educated properly. It's everyone in this school. Everyone has a reason to hate her, and want her gone. Sooner or later more kids will be put into detention with her. They'll see her methods, they'll write to their parents, and their parents will get angry. She'll be gone, trust me."

"What if it doesn't work?" sadi Jason, "What if she's the Inquisitor, Nico? The one from the prophecy?"

They were quiet. A few Ravenclaw third years walked in front of them to breakfast. when they had passed, Nico said, "Then we bring her down. One way or another."

Jason nodded. "All right."

…

The week passed quickly. Nico noticed that in Defense, Harry had done a better job of keeping his temper. Jason began practicing for Hufflepuff Quidditch team tryouts. During breakfast, Nico would see him devouring book on the sport. At one point he had at least five of them lined up in a wall, cutting him off from the rest of the Hufflepuffs. When classes were over, he and Nico would follow Harry down to the pitch, who agreed to teach Jason how to be a Seeker, which was the position Jason would be trying out for.

Nico watched them fly from the stands. Just as Persephone didn't want him in the greenhouses, he doubted his uncle would be thrilled to have him in the sky. Poseidon might tolerate him on a boat, however.

"Say, Nico," said Hermione from next to Nico. She was watching Ron flying, who was tossing a ball with his sister, "A few weeks ago, back at Grimmauld place, Lou Ellen said she would teach Ron, Harry, and I Battle Magic. Has she mentioned it at all to you?"

Nico head shot up. He furrowed his brows in confusion, and narrowed his eyes. "No, I haven't heard anything about it. I'll ask. We're all pretty ADHD. She might have forgotten."

Hermione frowned, and narrowed her eyes. "All right…" She studied him with her intelligent brown eyes, then said, "You're all ADHD _and_ you have dyslexia? That's rare, for all of you to be transfer students at the same time, and be afflicted in the same way, isn't it?"

Nico just managed to stop himself from cursing, and keep a poker face. "We're related," he said, then mentally cursed himself. He should have feigned ignorance, now Hermione had another piece of evidence.

"Really?" she paused, then said, "Tell the boys I went to the library for me, will you?"

Nico nodded, his lips narrowing.

Of course she was.

Nico continued to watch the others fly on their broomsticks for a few moments before a waved Jason down to the stands. Jason flew down with unnatural grace for someone who had taken their first ride just the previous day.

"What is it?" he said, panting a little bit.

"I think Hermione's onto us. Or, at least she knows something weird is up." said Nico.

Ron and Harry looked at them curiously from the sky. Ginny threw the heavy leather ball at Ron, who just barely caught it, having been caught by surprise.

"Oh," said Jason, "Is that a bad thing? Will she tell Harry and Ron if she finds out? Will she find out?"

Nico thought about the other demigods that Sir Nicholas had mentioned. "I don't know. There have been other demigods in this world before. Ones that weren't just Hecate's children. They might have records. Considering the wizards immunity to the mist, I wouldn't be shocked if they had knowledge of the Gods."

Jason nodded, "Where's Hermione now?"

"Off to the library. I'm going to follow her, make sure I know what she knows, and see what I can prevent her from knowing."

"Okay, make sure she doesn't see you." said Jason.

"Yeah,"

With that, Nico walked off to someplace less sunny with a little more privacy. While he didn't mind students knowing of his Shadow Travel, he didn't know if Umbridge had any contacts within the school. The last thing he need was Umbridge knowing of his Umbrakinesis.

When he was sure no one was looking, Nico melted into the shadows. The familiar sensation of traveling at a hundred miles per hour came to him in a rush. He allowed himself a smile as he emerged in a secluded corner of the library. As exhausting as the art was, he love the rush that came with it. He stayed in the shadows, so as to be unseen and looked for the bushy head belonging to Hermione Granger.

Nico saw her walk into the library a few minutes later. Her cheeks were rosy from the walk there, and her bushy hair was disordered from the late summer wind, but her smile was determined. She walked through the dim library's shelves, not seeing Nico, who was hidden in his shadow's. The books she chose were mostly on the mental disorders that Nico, Lou Ellen, and Jason all shared, and their reasons for emerging in wizards.

Soon, she had amassed a pile of close to a dozen books. She sat down at a desk, and began to read, taking notes as she did so.

The scratching of her quill, and her slow breathing, and the quiet whispers of students working on their homework were the only sounds Nico heard for hours. It occurred to him as dinner came to a close, that Nico had yet to work on the mountains of homework that his teachers had been assigning him over the past few days. There was an essay for Binns on Goblin Wars in the early 1800's, and McGonagall had given them two essays that week- both of which Nico had yet to finish. Not to mention the dream diary that Nico was supposed to be keeping for Trelawney.

He wondered who Lou Ellen had been talking to on that first day. She never told him or Jason.

Nico forced down a frustrated growl at the lack of communication on this team, some of which was his fault. He wondered if he had somehow, by all the bad luck in the world, amassed a team that had the least likelihood of communicating well with one another. Jason, who, now that Nico had been watching him more closely, was obviously suffering from some sort of PTSD from the Giant War; Lou Ellen, who neither Nico nor Jason knew much about; and then there was himself, Nico, Son of Hades, who didn't exactly fit in well with people who weren't dead.

Sighing, Nico forced himself to shadow travel to a corridor near the Gryffindor common room.

"_Mimbulus mimbletonia,_" said Nico to the Fat Lady at the portrait hole. She glared at him and let him through. Students stared at him as he entered. It had been nearly a week, and they still seemed to be unsure of him. Nico knew he gave them the creeps. He sat down at a desk near the window to work on his homework. As he pulled out his books, he felt Dee20 jump onto the desk. The kitten was purring loudly, rubbing it's head against Nico.

"Hey," he murmured, scratching Dee20 behind the ear.

"What's her name?" said Neville, who seemed to materialise behind Nico.

"Dee20," said Nico.

Neville raised his eyebrows, "Dee20? That's an odd name."

"Her brother's name is Gnat."

"Okay?"

Nico stared at Neville in disbelief. "Have you never played a tabletop game before?"

Neville shook his head, "No, what's that?"

"Games that you play with dice, your imagination, and sometimes a board." said Nico. He continued stacking his books on the desk.

"No magic?" said Neville.

"Nope,"

"Oh," Neville sat down at the desk next to Nico's, and got out some of his own books. "That still doesn't explain the name."

Nico smiled a little bit, "There is a really fun tabletop game called Dungeons and Dragons. One of the main dice you use is a twenty sided dice. When you're attacking, you get an automatic pass if the dice naturally lands on the twenty."

"Okay," said Neville blankly.

"It's normally called a 'natural d20' when that happens, some people shorten it to 'nat d20'."

"Oh! Gnat and Dee20, nat d20, I get it," Neville laughed, "That's really clever, who thought of it?"

"Me- Lou Ellen doesn't play tabletop games." Nico felt his stomach do jumping jacks at Neville's laugh.

"You should teach me how to play Dungeons and Dragons sometime. I could ask Seamus and Dean if they'd like to play as well, if you'd like."

Nico blanked for a moment, then, "Really? Sure, but, do you think they'd want to?"

Dean was the black boy that Nico had seen his first night here. Seamus was the Irish boy. They were best friends, and hardly ever seen without the other. Nico hoped they would both want to play, as it was no fun playing D&D with only two players, and one Dungeon Master. Or worse, if neither of them wanted to play. In that case they wouldn't be able to play the game at all.

Neville shrugged, glancing at Fred and George who were trying to convince a few terrified First Years to allow themselves to become guinea pigs form some prank food the twins were making.

"I dunno. I know Dean comes from a family of muggles, so he probably is familiar with the game, and Seamus is his friend. So if Dean decides to play, Seamus might give it a try."\

"Okay," said Nico.

"By the way, that cat of your's is terrifying. I swear, it's out to kill someone. Even Mrs. Norris is scared of it."

Nico smiled, and scratched behind Dee20's ears, "Yeah, she and Gnat don't really seem to like anyone but Lou Ellen and I,"

"Why not?" said Neville.

Nico shrugged, "I dunno. It's just how she is. They're defensive, though. They'll mostly just growl at you."

Neville nodded slowly, still eyeing the cat with suspicion. He looked like there was something else he wanted to ask.

"Spit it out," said Nico.

"Is it even a cat?" said Neville with trepidation.

"No idea. Just adorable."

The other boy shook his head, and the two of them continued to work on homework.

For the better part of an hour, the only sound between the two of them was the sound of turning book pages, and the scratching of Neville's quill- Nico was using a ballpoint pen. He didn't understand the fascination with quills.

"Do you know what the Jupiter's largest moon is? It's Callisto, right?" said Neville.

"Ganymede," said Nico. "How do you get plants to not kill you?"

Neville winced. He was obviously remembering Nico's experience in Herbology. "They don't normally. For whatever reason, they don't like you."

Nico nodded, inwardly cursing his stepmother. Hazel didn't have this problem, though, at the same time, Hazel's mother hadn't been a threat to Persephone's position. Or should Nico say, Proserpine.

The special type of hate Persephone held for Nico wasn't because he was Hades bastard child. That isn't to say she didn't resent him for that. Oh no, she definitely hated him for that. But she knew Hades needed demigod children, and Persephone had her lovers to keep her bed warm when she was away from the Underworld. So long as Hades was hers, and only hers, during her time in the Underworld the Spring Goddess put up with her husbands own lovers.

No, it was the fact that Hades had two children with Maria di Angelo, that made Persephone so mad. Most of Hades lovers were shallow affairs that ended as quickly as they started, and always ended as soon as Winter began, just as Persephone's. And, unlike Poseidon and Zeus, Hades didn't normally have children with his courter's.

Maria di Angelo was one of the few women to, not only catch Hades eye, but his heart as well. Even with her dead and buried for the past seventy years, he could not bear to speak of her.

And _that_ made Nico's mother a threat.

"Yeah, I know why, too." said Nico. He returned to his homework, ignoring the confused looks from Neville.

Soon, they finished their homework. The sky outside was dark, and Neville stood up and yawned, stretching as he did so. "Well, I'm going to bed. Care to join me?"

Nico shook his head, glancing at Harry, Hermione and Ron. The latter of the three was tearing up a letter, grumbling and glaring at it. He threw the torn bits into the fire.

He should stay. Keep an eye on them. "No," he said. "I'm not tired."

"All right," said Neville, and he walked up to bed.

Dee20 curled herself into Nico's chest, sleeping and kneading slightly as she did so. Nico continued to pet the strange cat as he watched the Harry and Ron work on their massive piles of homework, while Hermione poured through various textbooks about wizarding mental disorders. He wondered if the what she suspected so far.

Soon, Harry closed his books with a _slam_ and he and Ron trudged up the stairs to the boys dormitory. Nico soon followed, closing his own books. Hermione peered at him over her old tomb with a suspicious eye.

The week passed quickly. Harry and Ron soon had Jason whizzing through the air on a school broomstick, and the boy had ordered one in the mail, with permission from Lou Ellen, of course. Since there was plenty left in the fund that they had been given for the quest, she allowed him to get an inexpensive one.

"This has got to last us all year," she said sternly to him over breakfast.

"Yes, but Lou Ellen, come on. We've already got our books and everything!" Jason said to her, in a pleading voice.

Lou Ellen eventually relented, "Fine, I don't really trust the school brooms anyways," she said later that evening after being hounded by Jason.

And she was right not to. Nico hadn't tried them yet, but according to Jason, most of the school brooms were old, with flying charms that were wearing off. They liked to wobble in the air, and were slow to commands.

Jason's broom arrived the morning of tryouts. It was the same model as Ron's, but the metal on the end that held the bristles in was painted a royal purple, standing out against the Cleansweeps gold plated emblem.

They walked out to the Quidditch pitch about an hour before tryouts. Jason wanted to practice before the tryouts began, and Nico figured he could study a bit. Lou Ellen was on Harry stalking duty.

When they got down to the field, they found Hermione, Ron and Harry already down there. Lou Ellen was up in the stands, surrounded by a pile of books, sending vicious glares towards Hermione, who was surrounded by an equally large pile of books one stand over.

Ron whistled when he saw Jason's broom, "Wow, the metal on the one Mom got me was painted a copper color. Didn't know they did purple. Why'd you go with purple, isn't it for girls?"

Jason bristled at the allegation, "No, back in Ancient Rome it was worn by Roman emperors and Magistrates, and it's meant to symbolize-"

"Hey, Jason, I'm going to go sit with Lou Ellen." Nico interrupted.

"Oh, all right," said Jason.

Harry flew down as Nico left the pair. He then flew back into the sky with Jason and Ron closely following. Nico sat down next to the furiously studying Lou Ellen.

The girl's hair was a mess, and she had heavy bags under her eyes. Her normally copper colored skin was pale and had a lackluster look to it.

"You okay?" said Nico.

"_Yes_," said Lou Ellen, but as soon as the words faded from her lips she broke down. "No, I'm a complete failure!"

Nico patted her back a bit awkwardly while she vented. "She better then me in _everything_!" the girl cried.

"Who?" said Nico.

"Hermione," said Lou Ellen glumly. She huffed, and thumbed through one of her class books, "No matter how hard I try, I can't beat her. I'm a daughter of Hecate! Magic is supposed to come naturally to me, but I can't seem to beat a normal witch!"

"Well, she is a very talented witch," Nico reasoned.

Lou Ellen groaned, and gave him a pointed look, "That's not the point! The point is that I'm supposed to be the _best_! It's what Mom expects of me…" She slumped in her seat, throwing the book to the side.

They were quiet for a few minutes, and Nico felt a strange sort of kinship with her. He knew what it felt like to have your godly parent putting an unbearable pressure on you to be the best. Hades had done that when Nico was younger, often comparing him to his dead older sister. He still did, minus the dead sister comparison.

Nico stopped patting Lou Ellen's back. He picked up the thrown book, _The Standard Book of Spells Grade Five, by Miranda Goshawk_. He would bet that Lou Ellen had halfway memorized it by now.

"Lou Ellen, you're at the top of our class, right next to Hermione. And you know what's different about you, besides the fact that you're a demigod?"

"What?" said Lou Ellen quietly.

"You've never used a wand before this year." said Nico, with a smirk.

Lou Ellen sat up her eyes wide, and staring at him with amazement. She sniffed, and looked at him in a way that Nico couldn't place. "Nico…" she said softly.

Nico gave the book back to Lou Ellen, clutching her hands. He had heard that messages were better relayed if the two people conversing were touching, and he wanted to make sure Lou Ellen listened.

"Look, Lou Ellen, I know what it's like to be pressured by your godly parent. Dad pressures me like you wouldn't believe. But your _talented_. I've seen you in class, okay. Just keep practicing. Hermione'll be left in the dust."

Lou Ellen kept looking at him with that look of wonder that Nico couldn't place. Suddenly, the girl kissed him, lips smashing against his. Once the shock had registered, and the semi-disgust, Nico pushed her away. He stared at Lou Ellen's slowly reddening face with consternation and alarm, wondering what was wrong with her.

She mumbled something with partial embarrassment, and partial shame. Before Nico could say anything, the girl gathered up her books, running off and away from the Quidditch stands.

A sinking feeling of realization came to Nico. That was why she had always been so awkward around him.

…

Jason made the Seeker position for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. Nico congratulated him after dinner later that night, leading him to the library. He needed advice on what to do with Lou Ellen, and figured that he could talk their without to many people overhearing.

"What is it," said Jason, sensing Nico's distress.

Nico didn't answer, simply steering Jason through the swarming pit of students heading towards their respective common rooms. A gaggle of First Years were laughing at a some joke, a few Slytherin girls were whispering amongst themselves, a group of Seventh Years were looking through sheets of parchment.

The two weaved through them all, reaching the library after about five minutes of walking. Nico searched though it's dusty shelves for an area that wasn't populated.

"Lou Ellen kissed me," he blurted out. His voice sounded more panicked than he had hoped it would.

"Oh," said Jason. His face looked confused.

"Jason, she _kissed_ me. On the lips."

Jason nodded, but he still looked like he didn't understand.

"What do I _do_? Jason, I'm- I'm..." Nico fumbled, looking over his shoulder, "I'm _gay_." he whispered.

"I don't know… tell her you aren't interested?"

"How, I mean, Lou Ellen isn't exactly ugly, wouldn't that look suspicious?"

Jason raised his eyebrows, confused again, "Suspicious?"

"What if Lou Ellen thinks I'm not normal?" said Nico, suddenly feeling very small.

"Nico, just tell her that you're flattered, but you aren't interested. Trust me, I've turned down girls before. Most of them just look sad, then walk away."

Nico nodded, a small part of him feeling guilty that he would think Lou Ellen would be that shallow and self-obsessed. Jason started to walk away, but then Nico spoke again.

"Should I tell her?" Nico's voice was more shaky than he wanted, and his fingers crossed themselves in his hands.

Jason shrugged, "You don't have to."

"If I did, do you think she would tell others?"

"No, Lou Ellen doesn't seem like she would do that." said Jason, shaking his head. "Nico, seriously, you being gay has nothing to do with the quest. Tell everyone, or tell no one, it's all up to you- that's all I'm going to say."

Nico nodded, wanting to go up to the Gryffindor common room and sleep. He had completed most of his homework after Lou Ellen had kissed him, then ran off. He wondered if he could convince himself that all of this would disappear in the morning, and just never talk to Lou Ellen about what happened.

"Could I just not talk to her about the kiss?" said Nico.

"Of course not. That would be leading her on, and it would be cruel. I should know, I did that unintentionally with Reyna."

"It's scary. I don't understand girls. I like boys for a reason." said Nico. He frowned, but was pretty sure it probably looked like a pout. Jason laughed.

"Yeah, sometimes Piper just confuses the heck out of me, but she's pretty great all the same." Nico watched Jason sit down in one of the chairs that was scattered around the library. "Look, you just need to get it over with. It's like ripping a band-aid off. The longer you go, the more painful it is."

"Did you learn that with Piper?" Nico asked without thinking.

Jason's face darkened, and he looked away, no longer smiling. "Yeah… that was pretty messy."

"I'm sorry, I didn't think,"

"It's fine." Jason stood up, "I gotta go. I told Hannah earlier that I'd help her with charms."

"Okay."

Nico watched him as he left, thinking about what he said. He probably should get it over with.

Jason's footsteps ebbed away, leaving Nico with only the sounds of the other students in the library. He waited a few minutes, then left too.

When he got to the Gryffindor common room, Nico collapsed on his four poster bed, and fell asleep within minutes.

…

The next morning, Nico found that talking to Lou Ellen would prove to be difficult as she avoided him at every opportunity. She avoided him at breakfast, only talking to Jason, who refused to relay the rejection.

"You need to tell her yourself," he said.

Nico got stuck on Harry Stalking duty, so he decided to take his D&D books with him and spend some time reading recreationally figuring his homework could be completed later that day with Neville.

While Harry practiced, Nico wrote up a Fighter, thinking that if he Neville, Dean, and Seamus did end up playing a campaign, one of them could use it as a back up character, or it'd be a NPC. He took out his black and gold dice and began rolling out stats on the seat next to him.

_18, 10, 13, 14, 12, 18_

He smiled, not too shabby. No, two eighteens was amazing. He could put them in Strength and Dexterity, and then leave the fourteen for constitution.

He thought for a moment. Ten would go in Charisma. Fighters were not negotiators. Thirteen and twelve would go in Intelligence and Wisdom. Fighters didn't really need those-

"Hey, Nico!"

Neville was walking up the stands towards Nico. He was panting, and appeared to have been running.

"Been looking for you everywhere," he said.

"Why?"

"Spoke to Dean and Seamus."

Nico set down the character sheet next to him, "What did they say?"

"Dean wants to know if you'll be DMing Pathfinder or D&D." Neville sat down, "What's Pathfinder?"

"Eeeh… sort of like D&D. I don't really know, actually. Never played."

"Oh, well, he says, 'It's better than 3.5,' or something like that."

Nico raised an eyebrow, "Okay, so I guess he plays?"

"I guess so. He was really excited when I told him about you being into it. Apparently he's been looking for someone who plays."

Nico smiled, "Awesome. Where are they?"

"Dunno. They disappear together every now and again. Last I saw they were leaving the common room."

Nico nodded slowly. "Okay."

Neville stood up again, clearing his throat, "Okay, well, I've got some stuff I need to do at the greenhouses. I told Professor Sprout I'd help her with some Mandrake repotting. Have fun here."

"Bye," said Nico, watching Neville leave the stands. The sun rays played with strands of his hair while he walked, lighting them up in different shades of dark brown, to a deep auburn. Only after he was out of sight, did Nico return to his D&D books.

The Quidditch practice itself was a disaster. Several Slytherins had shown up. including Draco Malfoy and his cronies, to shout insults to the Gryffindor players. Ron Weasley, the new Gryffindor Keeper seemed especially bothered by this and was distracted from his Keeper duties nearly the entire practice.

Ron fuddled, and dropped quaffles that Nico knew he could have caught under normal circumstances. Harry seemed to think so too.

…

The rest of the weekend continued in agonizing slowness. For the rest of Saturday, Harry and Ron worked on homework which they had ignored all week in favor of goofing off. After Quidditch practice the three didn't leave the common room. This meant that Nico couldn't leave either, because he was the only Gryffindor in the room. He spent this free time studying ahead, and practicing spells and charms.

The majority of Sunday was spent in the common room as well. By evening Nico wanted to scream. His head hurt from reading, and Dean and Seamus had wandered off again, so he couldn't talk to them about Pathfinder. Neville was still helping Professor Sprout with the Mandrakes.

With a sinking heart, Nico realized that the only way from him to alleviate his boredom would be to socialize with the other Gryffindors.

The problem was, Nico didn't exactly fit in with them. Most of the Gryffindors were friendly, and fairly open, if a tad… boisterous. They were prone to loud exclamations and fearless claims. There was a time when Nico might have easily fit in with the stentorian crowd; when he was younger, and more naive, he had been the exact same with his love of Mythomagic.

Now, he wondered why the sorting hat had placed him here. Part of him wondered if he should have gone in Slytherin, as the house, from what he could see, seemed prone to housing outcasts. Jason, thought Nico, was someone who should have gone to Gryffindor. While he wasn't loud, he was definitely noble and brave.

Nobility… bravery… those didn't describe Nico. No, Nico did what needed to be done. The only times he had ever _tried_ to be noble or brave was when Percy was involved. And those didn't count, as the very basis of nobility was to be of good character. Nico had wanted Percy for himself, he had wanted to disrupt the beautiful relationship Percy had with Annabeth so that Nico could be happy. That wasn't noble.

So _why_ did it place Nico here? The question layered in self doubt lingered in the back of Nico's mind, keeping him from forming bonds with other Gryffindors.

Neville seemed to like him, however.

That knowledge left a warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of Nico's stomach, giving him the feeling of acceptance he hadn't felt since before being claimed as Hades son. He remembered how it had felt like in Hermes cabin, the feeling of having family and trust.

So, not having anything else to really do, Nico started chatting with the other Gryffindors.

Hours passed. The common room darkened, and midnight approached. Ron and Harry were still tirelessly working on their homework, Hermione eventually stepped in to help them. Nico, seeing the common room abandoned for the most part, decided to melt himself into the shadows to continue watching Harry.

The common room fire flickered on the wall, and Nico saw Harry get off the chair he was on and crouch to look at it.

"Er- harry?" said Ron uncertainly, "Why are you down there?"

"Because I've just seen Sirius's head in the fire." said Harry, his voice unusually calm for someone who had seen his godfather's head in his common room fire. Curious, Nico stood up, his body still encased in the shadows of the room, and walked over to snoop. Snooping was his job after all.

"Sirius's head?" Hermione repeated. "You mean like when he wanted to talk to you during the Triwizard Tournement?" Ah… so this has happened before, "But he wouldn't do that now, it would be too- _Sirius_!"

She gasped, gazing at the fire; Ron dropped his quill. There, in the middle of the dancing flames sat Sirius's head, long dark hair falling around his grinning face. Nico grudgingly admired his ruggedly handsome looks. The man did have somewhat of an appeal to him, as irritatingly biased as he was towards Nico. Though, considering the man's family, Nico couldn't blame him for being suspicious of anything to do with Dark magic, and Umbrakinesis was often hailed as some of the darkest of magics.

Thank Hades they didn't know of his Necromancy, or at least Sirius didn't.

"I was starting to think you'd go to bed before everyone else disappeared," said Sirius with a cheeky grin. "I've been checking every hour."

"You've been popping into the fire everyhour?" said Harry, half-laughing.

"Just for a few seconds to check if the coast was clear yet."

"Well, I think a girl- first year by the look of her- might've got a glimpse of me earlier, but don't worry," said Sirius as Hermione clasped a hand to her mouth. "I was gone the moment she looked at me and I'll bet she just thought I was an oddly shaped log or something."

"But Sirius, this is taking an awful risk-" Hermione began.

"You sound like Molly," said Sirius.

Good, thought Nico. He liked Mrs. Weasley. He wouldn't have discovered that eating sugary foods would help with his shadow traveling, without her. Hades had always told him he needed to eat, but the nausea from shadow traveling always kept him from doing so. \

"This was the only way I could come up with answering Harry's letter without resorting to a code- and codes are breakable."

Ron, Hermione, and Nico turned to stare at Harry.

"You didn't say that you'd written to Sirius!" said Hermione in an accusing manner.

"I forgot," said Harry. "Don't look at me like that, Hermione, there was no way anyone would have got secret information out of it, was there, Sirius?"

"No, it was very good. And I'm surprised about Nico, I suppose I might have been wrong about him…" he trailed off. "In any case, we'd better be quick, just in case we're disturbed- your scar."

Nico narrowed his eyes, wondering what the big deal was about Harry's lightning bolt shaped scar.

"What about-? Ron began, but Hermione said quickly, "We'll tell you afterward, go on, Sirius."

"Well, I know it can't be fun when it hurts, but we don't think it's anything to worry about. It ached all last year, didn't it?"

"Yeah, and Dumbledore said it would hurt whenever Voldemort was feeling a powerful emotion," said Harry. "So maybe he was just, i dunno, really angry or something the other night."

"Well, now that he's back, it's bound to hurt more often."

"You don't think it had anything to do with Umbridge touching my shoulder in class?" said Harry.

Nico remembered that moment. They had been reading, as per usual, and Umbridge had been walking up and down the aisles of desks like a prison guard. And she seemed to be just as resented as one in all of the houses. Even Slytherin seemed to be getting impatient from not learning anything in Defense class, according to Lou Ellen. They just weren't voicing it. Many of them had family who worked in the Ministry. They didn't want to get their families in trouble.

Umbridge had stopped behind Harry, and placed her hand on his shoulder, looking over the he had been reading. It was quite possibly one of the creepiest things Nico had ever seen.

"I doubt it," said Sirius. "I know her by reputation and I'm sure she's no Death Eater-"

"She's foul enough to be one," said Harry darkly, while Ron and Hermione nodded vigorously in agreement."

"Yes, but the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters," said Sirius with a wry smile. "I know she's a nasty piece of work, though- you should hear Remus talk about her."

"Does Lupin know her?" asked Harry quickly. Nico remembered Umbridge's comments about dangerous half-breeds and smiled evilly. If only she knew how dangerous 'half-breeds' really were.

"No," said Sirius, "but she drafted a bit of anti-werewolf legislation two years ago that made it almost impossible for him to get a job."

Ah… For a second Nico wondered why Lupin wouldn't look for a job in the muggle world if it was so hard in the wizard world, but then realized that should he go to the muggle world, he was at risk of the hunters, who couldn't cross into the wizarding world without permission from Hecate.

This made Nico pity the wise and shabby looking werewolf.

Wise… Werewolf.

Sirius was a dog.

Nico's head snapped up, and he nearly gasped out loud, his heart beating rapidly.

His dream. Sirius and Lupin were in his dream.

He almost didn't hear what Hermione said next.

"What's she got against werewolves?" she said angrily.

"Scared of them, I expect," said Sirius, smiling at her indignation. "Apparently she loathes part humans; she campaigned to have merpeople rounded up and tagged last year too." Nico wondered what Poseidon thought of that, and smirked at what he would have done had the loathsome woman been successful. "Image, wasting your time and energy on merpeople when there are little toerags like Kreacher on the loose."

Ron laughed, but Hermione looked upset. Nico also frowned at the mention of the elderly house elf that had lived in the house along with the Order and made life difficult for pretty much everyone except Lou Ellen, whom the elf adored for reasons unknown. Nico suspected it was because she was a daughter of Hecate.

"Sirius," Hermione said reproachfully. "Honestly, if you made a bit of an effort with Kreacher I'm sure he'd respond, after all, you are the only family he's got left. and Professor Dumbledore said-"

"So what are Umbridge's lessons like?" Sirius interrupted. "Is she teaching you all to kill half-breeds?"

"No," said Harry, "She's not letting us use magic at all!"

"All we do is read the stupid textbook," said Ron.

""Ah, well, the figures," said Sirius. "Our information from inside the Ministry is the Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat."

"_Trained in combat_?" repeated Harry incredulously. "What does he think we're doing here forming some wizard army?"

"That's exactly what he thinks you're doing." said Sirius. "Or rather, that's what he's afraid Dumbledore's doing-m forming his own private army, with which he will be able to take on the Ministry of Magic."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, including the stuff that Luna Lovegood comes out with."

"So we're being prevented from learning Defense Against the Dark Arts because Fudge is scared we'll use the spells against the Ministry?" said Hermione. looking furious.

"Yep," said Sirius. "Fudge thinks Dumbledore will stop at nothing to seize power. He's getting more paranoid about Dumbledore by the day. It's only a matter of time before he has him arrested on some trumped up charge."

D'you know if there's going to be anything about Dumbledore in the _Daily Prophet _tomorrow? Only Ron's brother Percy reckons there will be-"

"I don't know," said Sirius, "I haven't seen anyone from the Order all weekend, they're all busy. It's just been me and Kreacher here."

There was a definite note of bitterness in Sirius's voice.

"So you haven't gotten any news from Hagrid, either?"

"Ah…" said Sirius, "well, he was supposed to be back by now, no one's sure what happened to him." Then, seeing the grief stricken faces of the three teenagers, quickly added, "But Dumbledore's not worried, so don't you three get yourselves into a state; I'm sure Hagrids fine."

"But if he was supposed to be back by now…" said Hermione in a small worried voice.

"Madame Maxime was with him, we've been in touch with her and she says they got separated on the journey home- but there's nothing to suggest he's hurt- well nothing to suggest he's not perfectly okay."

Again, Nico wondered who Hagrid was. He seemed important to the Golden Trio.

"Listen, don't go asking too many questions about Hagrid," said Sirius hastily, "it'll draw even more attention to the fact that he's not back, and I know Dumbledore doesn't want that. Hagrids tough, he'll be okay." They didn't seem cheered by this, and Sirius added, "When's your next Hogsmeade weekend, anyway? I was thinking, we got away with the dog disguise last weekend, didn't we? I thought I could-"

"NO!" said Harry and Hermione loudly.

"Sirius, the _Daily Prophet_ mentioned you you, didn't you see it?" said hermione anxiously.

Nico decided he needed to talk to Lou Ellen and Jason about a subscription to the newspaper.

"Oh, that," said Sirius, his grin reminding Nico eerily of Percy, " They're always guessing where I am, they haven't really got a clue."

"Yeah, but Sirius…" said Harry, looking anxious.

"Harry, it'll be fine. besides, I've really been needing to get out…" Sirius's face looked haggard, and tired, and Nico could see the guilty looks on Harry, Hermione, and Ron's faces. The three relented.

"October fifth," said Harry, "Just, please, be careful. They'll give you the Dementors Kiss if they catch you."

Sirius beamed, lighting up his features. For a second, Nico could see the young man he knew Sirius was.

"Great!" he said. "Look, I can hear Kreacher coming down the stairs. I'll find you in Hogsmeade."

There was a tiny _pop, _and the place where Sirius's head had been was flickering flame once again.

Nico snapped a glance at Harry's scar once more before following him and Ron to bed. He decided that he should take a look at the scar as soon as it was possible, making talk to Lou Ellen about it, as she would most likely know something.

Voldemort, Nico knew, translated literally from French, into _flight from death_. He had learned French to aid him in his many travels while running errands for Hades.

_Flight from Death_… Death Eaters… This all made Nico think of a search for immortality. He sat up in his bed. He would need to speak to his father about this. if there was a man searching for immortality, Hades would almost certainly know about it. he might be able to give Nico some information that he wasn't getting here.

But that could wait till tomorrow. Tonight, Nico needed sleep.

And so he laid back down, and forced himself into an uneasy sleep, unable to take his mind off of Harry's scar, the man calling himself Voldemort, and his old dream about the werewolf, dog, stag, and rat.

**I apologize for my absence. I was taking a bit of a break. **

**Alrighty. So, while there have been changes from the events in the books, this is one of the first **_**major**_ **changes, along with Harry not having week of detentions. **

**Draco gives a hint on the train to Harry that he know's Sirius is an animagus, but he didn't have the chance in this AU. So, Harry is unaware of this fact, therefore unable to really give a fight at seeing Sirius again and relenting. This means Sirius will make an appearance at Hogsmeade. **

**And wow, this was a long chapter. **

**As for Jasper… The vote was unanimous. You have convinced me. They shall get together once again. **

**And again, if any of you have any comments, questions, or criticisms, please feel free to put them in a review, or message me. I love messages. However, please be logged in so I can answer them privately. I don't want to answer them in at the ends of chapters as I find that somewhat irritating in other fanfictions. **


	14. Chapter 14

**I'd like to formally apologize for my prolonged absence. It was unplanned. **

**Writer's block, cat had some kittens then stopped nursing them so we're having to hand rear them, been working a lot. Been moving in with my boyfriend as well.**

**Ugh. **

**Welp, here it is folks. **

Chapter Fourteen

Lou Ellen through the vast corridors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, cursing herself for her love-stricken impulsiveness. Yes, love. She was certain now that this wasn't some teenage infatuation.

She loved Nico. Really loved him. He was a good person. Dark, but good. And in many ways it gave her hope that needed.

It wasn't something she liked to think back on. Back to the Titan War so many years ago. She had been just a girl who hadn't been at camp for very long. But then her mother claimed her, and she had found herself without a home.

The one place on earth where she wouldn't be hunted, and suddenly she was tossed out. Sure, she could stay in the Hermes cabin during the summer, that old cabin was run down and stuffed to the breaking point with kids. No, it was better to just stay with her father. Spells were usually capable of keeping out unwanted visitors. Usually.

Lou Ellen kept running, collapsing somewhere by a window in the Astronomy Tower. She liked in up here. At night you had some of the clearest views of the heavens, and during the day the view of the school grounds was breathtaking.

In many ways she didn't blame her half brother for joining Kronos's army. She almost joined him herself. Almost.

Katie kept her on the side of the Gods. Katie with her warm smile and hugs. Katie who had stayed with her through thick and thin

Lou Ellen's eyes burned, and all of a sudden, for the first time since coming to this amazing and magical place she felt homesick.

Gods above, she was an idiot. A few kind words when she was stressed from school, and suddenly she was kissing the boy she had been in love with since she first laid eyes on him

And his reaction was nothing like she had fantasized.

She expected him to lean into the kiss, and break away, and look at her with sudden revelation in his eyes. That they'd kiss again, and laugh awkwardly while blushing. Nico would confess that he, too, had been in love with her.

No. It was nothing like that.

Nico had pulled away from the kiss. He'd looked at her with shock and disgust in his eyes. Katie had been right about everything.

Lou Ellen drew her knees to her chin, and hugged herself, ashamed at what she had done. In all honesty, she didn't blame Nico for being disgusted. Had Jason suddenly swooped in and kissed her like that, well, she'd have hexed his lips off.

"What's the matter with you?" said a voice from across the tower. Apparently she wasn't alone.

Lou Ellen bit her lip to keep herself from groaning. The voice belonged to the one and only Draco Malfoy. AKA number one douchebag in Slytherin House.

"Nothing you'd care about," said Lou Ellen hotly.

Malfoy raised an eyebrow. "Is it that Gryffindor you're always following? You know, you might have more friends in your house if you weren't always tagging around with him."

"Whatever,"

Malfoy smirked, "It is, isn't it?" He sauntered towards her, but Lou Ellen wasn't going to have any of it. She stood up and began to walk away.

"You know, you're on the wrong side." said Malfoy.

Side? Suddenly, the fact that Malfoy's parents must be Voldemort supporters hit Lou Ellen like a ton of bricks. She stopped in her path, and turned to face the ferret faced boy. He smirked turned cocky.

She smiled back, putting all of her boy troubles aside for the moment. Draco's parents were obviously encouraging his behavior. Over the weeks, the amount of times he had referenced something 'his Father' had told him was immeasurable.

The boy was a follower. And not just a boy, a malleable boy.

Douchebag he may be, Lou Ellen knew she could manipulate him if the incident in New York was any sort of evidence. She just needed to make him doubt in whatever sort of foundation he had underneath him.

_Play stupid,_ she told herself. "I'm sorry?"

Draco scoffed, "Potter and those friends of his. You're always hanging around them. You're on their side. _Dumbledore's_ side." The last bit was spat out with abhorrence.

"But isn't Professor Dumbledore the Headmaster?" she said.

"Ha! Now he is, but soon someone more competent will take his place!"

"I don't understand," she schooled her face into an expression of innocent confusion, "I was told he is a great Headmaster."

"To the Gryffindors he is! My first year here, we won the house cup fair and square!. The Gryffindors were in fourth place, _fourth_! They went and snuck out at night at the end of the school year, got into trouble and did something underneath the school. They were hailed as damned heroes, but all they did was nearly get themselves killed. They broke so many school rules and what does that lazy, good-for-nothing do? He _rewards _them!" He voice was laced with anger and jealousy. Lou Ellen struggled to keep her face neutral.

"Rewards them? How?"

"At the end of school feast, the banners were all Slytherin. _We_ won the housecup. We stayed out of trouble and stuck to the rules, and got the housecup. Or were supposed to. Then Dumbledore decided to hand out a few '_last minute points_', or whatever," he glared to the side in distaste, "He handed them a couple hundred points, along with that Longbottom oaf, and then turned all the banners and decoration in the hall red and gold, for Gryffindor, and everyone except Slytherin cheered. I mean, why? Why would he do that? Why would he make us believe we won, only to shove back in our faces how _hated _we are." he yelled in frustration.

Suddenly, his hatred of the other houses made sense.

In all honesty, while Malfoy was a grade A douchebag, and a slimeball to boot, he wasn't that bad of a person to his housemates. He liked to gloat to them, and show off the goodies and sweets his parent's sent him, but he also liked to share them with his friends- and at least in Slytherin, he was a master at making them.

Lou Ellen smirked inwardly as inspiration hit her.

The truth was, she hadn't had much luck in making allies in her house, or anywhere, really. Slytherin distrusted her due to Nico and Jason, and the rest of the school distrusted her due to her being in Slytherin.

If she could make Malfoy an ally...

She widened her eyes in shock, which wasn't that hard, because she was. She had a hard time believing Dumbledore would pull a dick move like that. If that was true, he essentially humiliated a quarter of the school, which would have been cruel and fairly unnecessary.

And yet, Malfoy didn't seem to be lying. He looked hurt and upset. With another pang of homesickness, Lou Ellen once again thought of her half-brother.

Alabaster had deemed the Olympian Gods as bullies. He joined Kronos, and when he was offered amnesty he had continued to urge their mother to fight against the Gods. he was exiled from the camp, and Lou Ellen knew she'd never see him again.

He had been hurt and angry, like so many of her cousins. And like Malfoy was now.

She kept calm, "That's horrible," she said.

"And that's not even the half of it," he muttered darkly,

"I'm sorry." She placed a hand on his shoulder, and smiled kindly at him. "And I'm sorry about the New York incident."

Malfoy glared again, this time at her. "That was mean. My mother laughed at me! Laughed!"

"Well, you weren't very polite yourself." she said sheepishly, how about we call a truce?"

"A truce?" he asked, laughing, "What do you have to offer?"

Lou Ellen frowned, looking disappointed. "Nothing, I'm afraid. I'm rather sparse on connections. Except of Millicent, Nico, and Jason, I don't know too many people here. And I don't have much money…"

Money and connections. That's how things worked in Slytherin. Most of the kids there were old blood or Ministry brats trying to get into better careers than their parents. They formed alliances, held together at first with one person holding the money, and another knowing everyone's dirty little secret, and another who was simply able to be friends with _everyone_.

Through trial and error, some of these alliances lasted forever. They became dependant on one another, or they were just too stubborn to give up; outcasts bonding with outcasts, they stayed with each other because they knew they would never be able to find anyone else.

Everyone found a true friend in Slytherin. You had to. Two weeks in, and Lou Ellen already knew this.

Malfoy stared at her, his eyes seemed to be calculating. Then, he gave her another cocky smirk. Lou Ellen resisted smirking as well.

No, Draco Malfoy was not dumb. While Lou Ellen didn't like him, she had to admit he was a sneaky little bastard.

"Tell me, Lou Ellen, are Nico and Jason friends with Potter?"

Lou Ellen shrugged, "I don't know… Weasley and Potter were teaching Jason Quidditch. And Nico is friends with Longbottom."

Malfoy smirked, nodding, "Yes… And what about you, Baines? Are you friends with Potter?"

Lou Ellen tried to keep an oblivious facade while she shrugged, "I wouldn't say _friends_. We've only known each other a few weeks! We talk about what we're doing, homework, plans for the future. That sort of stuff."

Malfoy paced excitedly, "Of course… why didn't I think of it sooner…" He grinned, flinging his arm around Lou Ellen, while Lou Ellen allowed herself a small smile. "Lou ellen, is it alright if I call you that? I think we are going to become very good friends."

…

"I don't understand… Could you explain it again?" said Ron through a mouthful of chicken. Lou Ellen mirrored Hermione's revolted face, adjusting her temporary spot on the stool.

"I can provide you information, for a price."

"Yeah, information from Slytherin Why would we want to know what those snakes are up to?"

"Excuse me?" said Lou Ellen, raising her eyebrow. Hermione glared at Ron, and cut in,

"What Ronald is trying to say, is why do we care."

Lou Ellen smirked, "Well, Umbridge is from Slytherin, isn't she?"

"Yes, but,"

"So what house do you think she's going to brainwash first? What house has a fairly good reason to dislike Dumbledore? What house had the most supporters for You-Know-Who?"

Ron's eyes widened in realization, and Hermione's narrowed. Harry look somewhat angry.

"Dumbledore's the greatest headmaster ever!"

Lou Ellen raised her eyebrow, "That's what you took from what I just said? Whatever… Let me explain. From what I hear, during your first end of school feast, he set the Slytherin's up to think they'd won the house cup, and then humiliated them by changing the banner's color's from green to red."

Hermione, Ron, and Harry all blinked and looked at each other as if they'd never thought of that. They probably hadn't.

"Regardless," she continued, "The enemy, of my enemy, is my friend. Here's the deal. You're all semi-officially in the Order of the Phoenix. I don't know much about this You-Know-Who guy, I was never taught too much about about that war. My dad never spoke of it too often. But I do know he's bad news, and I trust Dumbledore's word that he's back.

"I also know that I want Umbridge gone. I want to be Minister of Magic, and I I am to achieve that position, or anywhere near it, I need to know defense." She paused for effect, "Do you know what this means?"

Hermione was the first to speak, "It means that you're in a position to give us vital information on Umbridge, and quite possibly information about You-Know-Who's supporters."

Lou Ellen grinned at her rival, "Yes."

"But you said that it had a price. What's the price?" said Harry with distrust in his eyes.

"Information," she said nonchalantly, "What you're up to, what's happening in your lives, who broke up with who."

That wasn't entirely it. Malfoy actually wanted the stuff that could get them in trouble. It seemed the boy had an obsession with trying to get the three, or Harry specifically, into trouble.

"Oh," said Hermione skeptically, "Is that all?"

"Well, it's more of the stuff that could get you into trouble, and possibly more serious things later on in the school year."

"Serious, like what?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

"Who knows- can I read that?" Lou Ellen pointed at Hermione's newspaper copy folded next to her plate. There was was a picture of Umbridge on the front cover.

"Sure," said Hermione, grimacing, "but you'll hate it."

As soon as Lou Ellen read the cover she found out why.

**'MINISTRY SEEKS EDUCATIONAL REFORM. DOLORES UMBRIDGE APPOINTED FIRST-EVER HIGH INQUISITOR.'**

_You shall go East and face the Inquisitor's rage._

Lou Ellen stared in horror at the newspaper.

This was bad. She hadn't expected this. She had thought Umbridge would be an irritating, but small part of their quest. This would evidently not be so.

She had to talk to Jason and Nico. Screw the drama, this took priority.

"You can keep it, if you'd like. We've already read it." Hermione said, digging at her eggs.

Lou Ellen nodded and took off towards Nico. "I'll give you some time to mull over the offer."

Nico was currently in a very deep one-sided conversation with Neville. Neville was gesturing wildly with his hands and showing him something from from a book, while Nico listened with a smile and a far off look in his eyes. His elbow for whatever reason was in the bowl of butter next to his plate. Nico didn't seem to notice and no one had posted it out.

It was strange that it was the same look Lou Ellen wished would be in his eyes when she talked to him.

Approaching the two of them, Lou Ellen coughed to get their attention. Nico, being surprised, jumped. It was then that he noticed his butter soaked elbow.

"What in Hades?"

"Nico, I need to talk to you and Jason," said Lou Ellen quickly.

Nico nodded, "It's about the _Daily Prophet_, right?"

"Yeah,"

Nico stood up. Neville offered Nico his robe, and the Nico took it with an embarrassed smile. Lou Ellen felt a flash of jealousy, but she couldn't put her finger on why. It wasn't like Neville was competition.

Neither of them mentioned yesterday's incident on the way to the Hufflepuff table.

When Jason came into view, they both noticed something seemed off about him. He had dark circles under his eyes, and didn't look like he had gotten much sleep. His housemates were sending him worried glances. He was holding his stuffed eagle in his arms and looked absolutely miserable.

His eyes were staring at what seemed to be nothing. They just gazed out across the hall, but we're glazed over like glass.

He looked haunted, in a way.

"Jason," Lou Ellen called out.

Jason flew about a foot off his seat. He looked around wildly for them and nodded after he found their faces in the crowd.

"Hey," he said with a high, false cheerfulness. "What is it?"

"This," said Lou Ellen, handing him the paper.

His eyes widened and he gaped at the paper, reading it as quickly as he could.

"We should talk about this somewhere more private," Lou Ellen murmured.

"Right," said Jason, grabbing an apple and a few slices of toast. Lou Ellen did the same.

The three made their way towards the grounds where they could talk in peace, and without worry of interruption. Lou Ellen noticed Nico kept glancing at her, frowning. She tightened her lips and straightened her back, hoping something would end the awkward silence. Then, something did.

Just, nothing like she expected.

"I'm gay," said Nico quietly.

Lou Ellen stopped in her tracks, "Sorry?"

"I'm gay. Jason already knows, but no one else, at least not here. So don't go around telling people." Nico kept walking along with his hands shoved in the pockets of his robes. He darted his eyes around their surroundings anxiously, and chewed on his lip.

Lou Ellen felt oddly calm as she processed the information. She really didn't know what to think about it, honestly. She felt sad, certainly. For quite some time now, she had had a crush on the boy. Knowing he was gay didn't stop those feelings, it just meant that now she knew for certain that the life she had fantasized about would never come to be.

But at the time, her feelings weren't important. She could brood on her thought later on, and write to Katie to complain about the fact that she'd never raise ten beautiful babies with the love of her life. Right now, there were more important matters to discuss.

They stopped walking when they got to the edge of the Black Lake. Nico was still glancing around.

"What is it?" Jason asked curiously.

"I don't know... I feel…" He shook his head, "No, it's impossible. Why on earth would _he_ be here?"

Nico started walking towards where they had just came from, then suddenly stopped. He stared at a tree for a few moments, narrowed his eyes, and walked back to the edge of the lake.

"Nico, what is it?"

"We're being watched." Nico sat down, "Someone has an invisibility cloak, but not just any invisibility cloak."

"What do you mean?" said Jason.

"One of Death's invisibility cloaks. He has an entire closet filled with them. Hands them out to demigods he becomes a patron to, orto his children. Kind of like Hermes and his winged shoes."

"And someone has one here?" I said.

Nico nodded, still looking at the tree behind us from the corner of his eye. "Yeah, and they have friends. There is three people underneath that cloak."

"How can you tell?" said Jason, confused.

"Their feet are sticking out from underneath the cloak."

I snickered, "So, I guess it's not too effective."

Nico smirked, "Lou Ellen, do you know any spells to keep us from being overheard?"

I grinned. Oh boy, did I ever. Except they weren't spells, per say; I could manipulate the mist to make whoever was listening in on us think we were talking about the weather, or breakfast, or literally the most mundane thing your brain could come up with.

I concentrated, and used my mind to feel the tendrils of the Mist. They twisted and bent around the three of us. I grabbed the tendrils and shaped them around us, forming something of a psychic shield. From there, I was able to command it to show onlookers whatever they thought would be the most boring.

It would take a little energy to hold up, and I'd be panting by the time the conversation was over, but it was nothing a nap in History of Magic couldn't fix. I had a feeling Nico would be doing the same. I'd had to wake him up on several occasions.

He looks so cute and peaceful when he's asleep.

Nico was the first to speak, "All right so do you remember when I had that dream about the stag, rat, werewolf and dog?"

Jason and I nodded. A few days after we arrived at Grimmauld Place Nico told us about a dream he'd had where a bunch of animals were reciting the prophecy we were told before leaving camp.

"I think Sirius Black is the dog." said Nico grimly.

"Why is that?"

Nico sighed, "I haven't said anything because I wasn't certain, but last night… Sirius's head appeared in the fire. He was talking to Harry, Hermione, and Ron about some things, checking up on them; I was hidden in the shadows. They didn't know I was there."

"Why didn't you show yourself? They wouldn't have done anything- Harry and the others trust you. Plus, you already know about Sirius." I said curiously.

Nico shrugged, "I dunno. I wasn't positive how they would react, so i held back."

Lou Ellen nodded, starting to feel the tiredness from holding up such a large area of mist.

"Another thing," said Nico, "I think Lupin was the werewolf in my dream. Siriu mentioned last night that Lupin was a werewolf, and I can't believe that it's a coincidence."

"If it is, it's a big one," agreed Jason.

"And Umbridge?" said Lou Ellen.

"The Inquisitor from the prophecy. She has to be." said Nico.

"So what do we do?" said Lou Ellen. She was nervous, and rightfully so. The prophecy hadn't exactly been the most cheerful, though a cheerful prophecy wasn't exactly common.

"_Hecate's child will sleep forever in the Veil,_"

The memory of the word still made her want to vomit with fear. What could that mean? Whatever it did, she knew the chances of her going home again were slim. Or if she did, she wouldn't see it. You eyes were usually closed when you slept.

But it was also just as possible that the sleep wasn't literal.

It could mean death.

Sleeping forever in the Veil. That sounded a lot like dying to her. And dying wasn't an option. Lou Ellen couldn't become Minister of Magic if she were dead.

"So, the next part of the prophecy, _Four houses will unite, but the army will be razed_." Jason said, bringing Lou Ellen out of her thoughts.

Nico shook his head, sighing, "I don't know."

Four houses… Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin…

She gasped, "What if it's the four houses of Hogwarts?"

Nico lifted his head, his eyes wide. He nodded slowly, "Yeah… It definitely could be, but…"

"But what?" said Lou Ellen curiously.

"Umbridge is a Slytherin, wouldn't the rest of your house side with her?" said Nico a little uncertainly.

Part of Lou Ellen felt a little insulted, but she knew Nico's concerns held ground. Slytherin was the house Umbridge came from, and was the house she would find the most students willing to support her.

The Slytherins were ambitious, cunning, and many from old blood. From a very young age, most of them had been taught to pick their battles wisely, and their enemies even more so. As much as the students in the house would want and need proper defense lessons, it was more likely that they would abstain from openly protesting Umbridge's position.

However, if Lou Ellen could convince Malfoy to protest Umbridge, it was possible that the others might follow him.

"I don't think they'll side with her, at least not entirely. Slytherin is ambitious, and you won't rise very far if you bomb your end of year tests, because you haven't learned anything that year. But at the same time, they're going to be reluctant to make her an enemy. I think it's likely that they're going to be ucking p to her, while silently hating her."

Nico and Jason nodded.

"Ravenclaw will side with Hufflepuff," said Jason, "Many of them are friends with my housemates, and I know they hate Umbridge with a burning passion."

"That's no surprise," said Nico, "They value intelligence."

Lou Ellen smirked while Nico and Jason laughed.

"You would have made a good Ravenclaw, Lou Ellen," said Jason a little distractedly.

"Me?" said Lou Ellen, laughing, "No, that's not me. I'm smart, but not the way they are. Though, Nico, you'd make a pretty good Slytherin," she teased.

Nico crinkled his nose, "Eh… I'm good where I am. I actually like my house."

They laughed for a few good moments, but the conversation regained it's seriousness after a few minutes.

"So what's the plan?" said Jason.

"I think we should wait, figure out what Umbridge is going to do, and then try to sabotage her in any way possible." said Nico.

Lou Ellen nodded, "I don't really see what else we can do." She sighed, and hung her head, "All right, so is their anything else we need to discuss?"

"Harry, Hermione, and Ron said something about you offering to teach them wandless magic?" said Jason.

Her eyes widened. She had forgotten about that. "Oh, right. I should probably get to that. Okay, anything else?"

Nico and Jason shook their heads, and Lou Ellen dispelled the Mist barrier. She felt a tiredness spread throughout her body, and her head begin to ache.

"Alrighty, well breakfast is almost over, so we should get going." Nico said nonchalantly, standing up and dusting of his black uniform pants. Or trousers, as Lou Ellen's father often called them.

She and Jason both stood up, and he three of them made their way back up the winding path to the castle.

History of Magic was as dull and boring as ever. Professor Umbridge was apparently not going to be inspecting the class that day, nor was she in Professor Snape's classroom when they went down there for double potions, where Lou Ellen was handed back her essay with a large black '**E**' on it.

She noticed that both Jason and Harry hastily shoved his essay out of view when he received his. She allowed herself a smirk. Studying pays off. She glanced at Nico, who was sitting right next to her. He rolled his eyes and showed her his grade.

'**O**'

"'O'?" whispered Lou Ellen disbelievingly, "How'd you get an 'O'? That essay was _hard_."

"I studied," said Nico, smirking, "Potions is actually kind of fun, now that I can read the instructions."

"But this wasn't a practical assignment, it was an essay," she countered.

Nico shrugged, and put the paper in his bookbag, not saying anything. Lou Ellen groaned softly, glaring.

Determined not to be second _again_, Lou Ellen read every line of the instructions for a strengthening solution at least three times. She was rewarded with a potion that was a bright clear shade of turquoise, rather than the blue color that was Nico's. Lou Ellen left the class feeling confident in her abilities once more.

Lunch was quiet. Millicent wasn't feeling hungry, so she took an apple and ran off to the library. Draco was busy showing off his potions grade to their housemates. She watched Harry, Hermione, and Ron chatting with the Weasley twins, while she munched on a slice of pizza.

When she met Nico and Jason in Divination, she smiled, sitting down at the round table the three had claimed for themselves. She pulled out her copy of _Dream Oracle_, about to read it, when Nico elbowed her. She looked up, and he motioned to the trapdoor entrance.

Professor Umbridge was pulling it open, holding a clipboard in her stubby hands. Lou Ellen narrowed her eyes, wondering how this was going to go.

"Good afternoon, Professor Trelawney," said Professor Umbridge with her wide smile, "You received my note I trust? Giving you the time and date of my inspection?"

Professor Trelawney nodded curtly and, looking like Katie had when Travis and Conner had pulled a prank on her, turned her back on Professor Umbridge and continued to give out books. Still smiling, Professor Umbridge grasped the back of the nearest armchair and pulled it out to the front of the class so that it was a few inches behind Professor Trelawney's seat. She then sat down, took her clipboard from her flowery bag, and looked up expectantly, waiting for the class to begin.

Professor Trelawney pulled her shawls tight around her with slightly trembling hands and surveyed the class through her magnifying glasses. "We shall be continuing our study of prophetic dreams today," she said, giving a brave attempt at her usual mystic tone. Lou Ellen looked around the class, most looked bored, a few were glaring at Professor Umbridge. She did however, see Apollo watching Trelawney again, this time with a hint of concern. When the teenaged god saw Lou Ellen shocked expression, he held a finger up to his Ken Doll lips and winked. "Divide into pairs, please, and interpret each others latest nighttime visions with the aid of the _Oracle_."

After giving her instructions, Trelawney turned so she could sweep back to her seat, however, upon seeing Umbridge right behind it, she veered off to the left towards Lavender and Parvati, and Apollo sitting unseen, making sunbeams dance on the walls.

Lou Ellen wondered if he visited his legacies often, or if it was just Trelawney.

She paired up with Jason, Nico rushed off to buddy up with Neville.

"So… what have you been dreaming about?" Lou Ellen asked him hesitantly. He looked as if he hadn't been sleeping well, now that she thought about it.

Jason shrugged.

"Nightmares?"

"Kind of," said Jason, tapping his fingers on the table.

"Do you want me to start?" Lou Ellen said with an encouraging smile. He nodded gratefully. "Okay, but be warned, I'm just going to make one up since I can't usually remember my dreams, unless there the special kind."

Jason laughed Lou Ellen started jabbering away about a cotton candy cloud shaped like a dog that chased her around, barking obscenities. Jason decided to do the same, which Lou Ellen agreed with. Umbridge might want to inspect the homework or something, and the less she knew about them, the better.

Plus, Jason didn't look like he was ready to talk about whatever he had dreamt of.

"Okay, so when did you dream this?" Lou Ellen said, as she wrote down the detailed account of Percy Jackson chasing Jason in a boat, in a sea of brownies, throwing bricks at him, while a girl named Reyna, and the head of the Aphrodite cabin, Piper, forced Jason to eat his way to safety. She was trying to keep from giggling at the mental image. Jason looked a little cheered up as well.

Over their stifled laughter, they could hear Umbridge questioning Trelawney. they looked sideways to listen in.

"Now," said Umbridge, looking up at Trelawney, "You've been in this position how long, exactly?"

Professor Trelawney scowled at her, arms crossed and shoulders hunched as though wanting to protect herself as much as possible from the indignity of the inspection. After a slight pause in which she seemed to decide that the question was not so offensive that she could not reasonably ignore it, she said in a deeply resentful tone, "Nearly sixteen years."

"Quite a period," said Professor Umbridge, "So it was Professor Dumbledore that appointed you?"

"That's right," said Professor Trelawney shortly.

Professor Umbridge made another note.

"And you are the great-great-granddaughter of the celebrated Seer Cassandra Trelawney?"

"Yes," said Trelawney, holding her head a little higher.

Another note was made on the clipboard.

"But I think- correct me if I am mistaken -that you are the first in your family since Cassandra to be possessed of second sight?"

"These things often skip- er- three generations," said Professor Trelawney.

Professor Umbridge's toadlike smile widened.

"Of course," she said sweetly, making yet another note. "Well, if you could just predict something for me, then?"

She looked up inquiringly, still smiling. Professor Trelawney stiffened, as if unable to believe her ears.

"I don't understand you," said Professor Trelawney, clutching convulsively at the shawl around her neck.

"I'd like you to make a prediction for me," said Professor Umbridge very clearly.

Jason and Lou Ellen were not the only ones watching and listening from behind their books, or out of the corner of their eyes now; most of the class were staring transfixed at Professor Trelawney as she drew herself to full height, her beads and bangles clinking.

Lou Ellen could see Apollo sitting at Lavender and Parvati's table, his face particularly malicious, looking offended.

"The Inner Eye does not see upon command!" she said in a scandalized tone.

_At least not to mortals like you,_ Lou Ellen thought, but noticed an odd quiet in the room.

Professor Trelawney had frozen, though Professor Umbridge did not appear to notice. She clucked her tongue and made a little note on her clipboard, but looked up as green smoke started appearing around Professor Trelawney, much like it did when Rachel made a prophecy. Professor Umbridge's eyes went wide, and her mouth formed a little 'O'.

Professor Trelawney spoke in a deep unearthly voice,

"_You will embark on a war against the houses four, _

_For six months you will seek, but you won't find the doors. _

_Your goal will be met by the traitor's hand,_

_The army will be razed in their final stand. _

_But your enemies will be great, so take caution and weep,_

_You will fall when Hecate's daughter delves into an endless sleep._"

Lou Ellen felt her blood turn cold when she heard the final stanza of the prophecy, and prophecy it was. So that was why Apollo had spent so much attention on the batty woman. She wasn't just a fake psychic who spewed out tales with the aid of tea leaves and crystal balls. She was capable of making prophecies.

Apparently the Oracle wasn't the only prophet.

After giving the prediction, Professor Trelawney slumped so low that she would have fallen had Lavender and Parvati not darted out to catch her, and help her to her desk. Professor Umbridge eyes were like saucers, but she was smiling, and scribbling like mad on her clipboard.

Professor Trelawney was shaking so hard at her desk, that Lou Ellen feared she might be having a fit. She stood up, walking to the woman whose eyes were darting madly around the room, seeming to be searching for someone, and reached out to grab her trembling hand.

"Ma'am, maybe you should see Madam Pomrey, you-"

Professor Trelawney grabbed Lou Ellen's arm with a grip as tight as iron shackles, "Beware! Beware the veil, child! Don't try to save your brother, for it means a fate worse than death for you!" Professor Trelawney was sobbing now, and Lou Ellen could only imagine what the experience must have been like for the poor woman. Inwardly, she felt a sort of resentment towards Apollo, for it must have been him that enabled Professor Trelawney to give that sort of prophecy.

"Please, Professor, let me take you to the hospital wing. You're very shaken up." Not only that, but Lou Ellen wanted to get the woman away from Professor Umbridge, who was staring shrewdly at Lou Ellen with her beady eyes.

"No! Take me to Dumbledore! I must tell him of this." Lou Ellen nodded, and she helped Trelawney to her feet. "Class is dismissed!" Professor Trelawney announced, waving her arms about. With a dramatic flourish, and a rattle of her beads and bangles, the shaking woman descended the trapdoor with Lou Ellen following suit.

They walked through the winding hallways, and up the moving staircases, until Lou Ellen was certain they must have gone up three stories, and walked for fifteen minutes. Eventually they came to the statue of an eagle.

"L-lemon drop," said Professor Trelawney, her eyes wide and wild behind her large spectacles, and she clutched her shawl tightly around her.

To Lou Ellen's continued amazement, the eagle statue started turning, revealing a spiral staircase that weaved and swirled in the wall. The two of them started to climb up it until the reached a large, beautifully carved door, on which Professor Trelawney knocked.

"Come in," said the headmaster's soft, gentle voice.

Professor Trelawney burst through the doors, her trembling and fear seemingly all gone, replaced by excitement.

"Headmaster- I saw through the mist, I had a vision! It was clear as day, clearer than any I have ever had!" She rambled on, telling him about the prophecy, stumbling over few words in her excitement. When she had finished, Professor Dumbledore, looked at her with puzzled, twinkling eyes.

"I see…" Was all that he said. He stood up, straightening a few papers on his desk.

"And the child- the daughter of Hecate- it's her, Headmaster," Professor Trelawney pointed at Lou Ellen.

"I believe you, Professor Trelawney, although I'm curious, you don't normally remember your prophecies."

"It was him, my great-great-great grandfather, I know it. He must have allowed me to remember my glimpse into the future."

Professor Dumbledore nodded gravely, then sat back down. "Thank you, Professor Trelawney, for bringing me this news, though I must ask that you leave, and retire to the infirmary for now. You look quite shaken up from your ordeal,"

Professor Trelawney squawked with indignation, "Professor Dumbledore, the Lord Apollo has granted my Inner Eye access to see the future more clearly than I ever have! To bear such witness to these vents is an honor and-"

"My dear Professor, I only meant that such an event has undoubtedly had an effect on you, and I'd like to let you rest and be examined so that if anything has gone wrong, our school won't lose such a valuable professor."

Professor Trelawney's mouth formed an 'O' and she nodded, with only a hint of embarrassment.

"Miss Baines, if you could ensure that Professor Trelawney gets to the hospital wing safely? I will let Professor Umbridge know that you will be late to class."

Lou Ellen nodded, and helped guide the still shaking, though not quite as harshly, professor out of the room

She couldn't stop thinking about that last line of the prophecy.

"_You will fall when Hecate's daughter delves into an endless sleep._"

**Please review and critique. It gives me life. **


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